Southern Rural Water has launched a new online trading room to make it easier and more transparent for people in south west Victoria to access groundwater.
The online trade room helps existing groundwater licence holders to buy and sell in the following Groundwater Management Areas or Water Supply Protection Areas:
• South West Limestone Groundwater Management Area
• Portland Groundwater Management Area
• Condah Water Supply Protection Area
• Newlingrook Groundwater Management Area
• Paaratte Groundwater Management Area
• Warrion Water Supply Protection Area
• Colongulac Groundwater Management Area
• Glenormiston Groundwater Management Area
These areas have capped groundwater entitlement volumes to protect the resource. Trade is the main way users gain access to groundwater. The new trade room makes it easier for buyers and sellers in these areas to apply for trade.
Southern Rural Water Managing Director Cameron FitzGerald said the most recent condition summary shows there is groundwater available and opportunities to trade water temporarily or permanently between licence holders.
“We’ve written to all water entitlement holders who did not use their entitlement last year, or those who have a high licence volume and very low usage to encourage them to consider trading their water.
“Our new trade platform will provide public access to historic trade price data, allowing people to make more informed decisions about the groundwater market rates when trading water for productive use,” he said.
Mr FitzGerald said the groundwater trade room will be open to licenced groundwater customers in south west Victoria with an allocation bank account (ABA).
“We know from our conversations with rural communities in this region that they’ve been significantly impacted by dry conditions this season.
“We want to implement this new trade room where its’s currently most needed in South West Victoria and we will look to expand the trade room to more groundwater customers in the future,” he said.
The groundwater trade room is a new addition to the Southern Rural Water Exchange platform that was launched in August 2023 to successfully help facilitate trade in the Macalister Irrigation District.
Southern Rural Water has teamed up with Water Partners, a not-for-profit specialist water trading organisation who operate the exchange platform, to deliver online trading services including the new groundwater trade room.
Further information is available on our water trading pages.