Water Licensing
About licences
A water licence or other approval from the Department is generally required to extract water from rivers or aquifers to use for commercial purposes.
NSW is currently operating under two pieces of legislation relevant to water licences and water trading (the buying and selling of water licences or annual allocation water):
- The Water Management Act 2000 governs the issue of new water licences and the trade of water licences and allocations for those water sources (rivers, lakes and groundwater) in NSW where water sharing plans have commenced. For more information go to New access licences
- The Water Act 1912 governs the issue of water licences in other areas. For more information go to Water Act 1912.
For information:
- on whether your licence is in a water sharing plan area, go to Which Act applies?
- on licensing under the Water Management Act 2000, go to New access licences
- about licences held under the Water Act 1912, go to Water Act 1912
- on the fees to cover the cost of applications for access licences, water supply works and/or use approvals and water dealings under the Water Management Act 2000, go to Fees and charges
- on security interests relating to a 'prior' licence under the Water Act 1912, go to Security interests
- about searching for the interests held under the Water Act 1912 and/or the Water Management Act 2000 for specific parcels of land, go to Searches
- about Water Management Act licences and approvals and water trading statistics, go to Registers
- about different types of approvals, go to Approvals
- about water trading and other types of licence changes, go to Dealings and trade
- about water licences issued for major utilities, the Snowy Hydro and Irrigation Corporations, go to Corporate licences.
Water Access Licence Register
Go to the Department of Lands to search the legal record of a water access licence on the Water Access Licence Register.