New South Wales Government
Water and Energy

• Water licensing
• Basic water rights
• About licences
• Dealings and trade
  • Dealings process
  • Assign share component
  • Change access licence
  • Subdivide
  • Consolidate
  • Interstate transfers
  • Exit a holding
  • Allocation assignment
  • Transfer access licence
  • Term transfer
  • Devolution | Caveats
• Approvals
• Corporate licences

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Water Licensing

Water access licence dealings

There are three agencies involved in water dealings:

• Department of Water and Energy
• Land and Property Information (LPI – a division of the Department of Lands)
• State Water Corporation (State Water)

There are two types of water access licence dealings:

• General water dealings
• Water allocation assignment dealings

General water dealings

General water dealings under the Water Management Act 2000 include the trading of water access licences, as well as any change to water access licences on the WAL Register.

Water access licences are maintained on the Water Access Licence Register (WAL Register) by LPI. The details of each water access licence on the WAL Register are publicly available. To undertake an online search go to Land and Property and Water Access Licence Searches.

General water dealings only take effect when registered by LPI on the WAL Register.

Some general water dealings, including assignment of share component and change of nominated work, require consent by the Department of Water and Energy, before registration with LPI.

Process for general water dealings
Assigning share component between WALs Changing a WAL Subdividing a WAL Consolidating WALs Exiting a holding from a WAL	Application	DWE Consent	Registration	LPI WAL Register
Transfer a WAL Term transfer a WAL Security interests Devolution and Caveats	Register with LPI

Water allocation assignment dealings

A water allocation is a volume of water (in megalitres) credited to a water access licence water allocation account. All or part of the water allocation can be traded.

Water allocation assignment dealings under the Water Management Act 2000 in regulated and major inland groundwater systems must be lodged with State Water.

Water allocation assignment dealings in unregulated rivers and groundwater systems NOT managed by State Water are available in very limited circumstances where extraction is metered. The Department of Water and Energy is the consent and registration authority for these dealings.

Process for water allocation assignments dealings
Water allocation assignment dealings on regulated rivers and major inland groundwater systems	Requires consent and registration	State Water
Water allocation assignment dealings on unregulated rivers and other groundwater systems	Requires consent and registration	DWE

Go to Assigning water allocations between access licences for more information.

More information

Go to The dealings process for information on how to undertake dealings.

Go to Water Management Registers for statistics on:

• water allocation assignments (formerly known as "temporary trades") and processing times
• the assignment of shares (formerly know as "permanent trades").