Water Register

South Australia has a new Water Register.

You can search the Water Register for free, or for a fee, depending on what type of data you require. You do not require a login to search the new Register.

South Australia’s Water Register contains information about:

• The water licences that have been issued to water users in South Australia and the holders of those licences.
• The water rights (entitlements and annual allocations) that have been issued in South Australia.
• Date of issue and/or expiry of those water right(s).
• Details of dealings in relation to licences and water rights transfer.
• Details of security interests (record of registration, name of security interest beneficiary, nature of the security interest); and
• Permits and approvals issued in South Australia for water affecting activities, such as well and dam construction, works within a watercourse or floodplain, or discharge to a well, watercourse or lake.

The Water Register is administered in accordance with the Landscape South Australia Act 2019.

The water instruments recorded in South Australia’s Water Register are worth more than $8 billion.

Landowners, government bodies and investors from across Australia hold interests in the water instruments recorded in South Australia’s Water Register. They are allowed to trade those instruments between themselves and with others, subject to compliance with the rules in place to ensure the sustainable management of South Australia’s water resources and the protection of South Australia’s ecosystems.

All of these stakeholders (and others, including scientists, researchers and policy makers working to find ways to protect our water resources and precious ecosystems) depend on the accuracy of the data in South Australia’s Water Register when they are making decisions that affect South Australia’s ecosystems and the people of SA.

Why have we upgraded the Water Register?

The new Water Register enables access to valuable water market data, aiding in the management of water assets for all water users and businesses. The upgrade also supports South Australia's compliance with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, positions the state to deliver the Australian Government's water market reforms, and underscores South Australia's commitment to sustainable water resource management. This reform project for the Murray-Darling Basin is a collaborative effort, funded jointly by the Australian and South Australian governments and executed by the South Australian Department for Environment and Water.

New features

The locations of water extraction points and land parcels are now accessible via the Water Register and are displayed with maps. Users can easily determine the presence of any security interests against water licences recorded in the Water Register. Additionally, information on entitlement pools* is now available for most areas (not just the River Murray as it has been historically). The new search interface is much cleaner and consolidates all information into a single document, reducing the previous clutter and reliance on multiple hyperlinks.

*Entitlement pools refer to the designated bodies of ground and/or surface water from which a license holder is permitted to draw water. This term encompasses various regional designations found in Water Allocation Plans (WAPs), such as "consumptive pool" or "management unit."

Consumptive pools are located in regions like the River Murray, Far North, Southern Basins, and Adelaide Plains. These areas may be partially or fully separated. Entitlements here are issued in "shares" rather than a fixed volume. Each year, a volumetric allocation is calculated based on these shares. For instance, if 1 share equals 0.9 kL for the year, and a licensee holds 10,000 shares, they would be allocated 9,000 kL for that year.

Management units or "zones" are used in most other areas and refer to specific aquifers, sections of watercourses, or all dams within a geographical region. In these zones, water entitlements are issued as a specific volume (in kL).