Adelaide
Water rights

Water allocation plans set the objectives and principles for allocating and transferring water rights and managing activities that affect prescribed water resources. Water-affecting activity permits are used to manage activities that can potentially have adverse impacts on the condition of water resources more generally, such as the construction of dams and bores. 

In the Adelaide region the abstraction and use of water is authorised by water rights under the Natural Resources Management Act 2004 (South Australia), (the Act) and by water licences issued to users (water access entitlements).

Water rights under the Act are administered by the South Australian Department for Water by delegation from the Minister for Sustainability, Environment and Conservation (Table R1). Native title holders, as determined under the Native Title Act 1983 (Cwlth), can take water for cooking, washing and drinking purposes.

Water licences relevant to the Adelaide region are summarised in Table R2. All water licences in the region have entitlements expressed as a volume per year except for the Barossa Prescribed Water Resources Area where a small number of licences have entitlements expressed as an area of crop to be irrigated per year. These latter water licences are in the final stages of conversion to volumetric entitlements. 

WAE = water access entitlement

# Refer to the Major water initiatives section of the Contextual information

By definition of the resource under the Natural Resources Management Act 2004 (South Australia);
^ 'underground water' – all water occurring naturally underground
* 'surface water' – includes catchment water resources (farm dams, run-off and storm water) and watercourses (river channel)
** 'watercourse' – includes only the river channel

Bundled water licences

In the Adelaide region, water licences for prescribed resources are bundled. This term is used to describe the fact that the water entitlement, allocation and approval to abstract water are bundled into a single licence. Bundled water licences within the Adelaide region are not subject to formal annual allocation announcements. Water allocation announcements are deemed to be 100% of the volume on the water licence and are available to the licence holder at 1 July each year. Currently there are no provisions within the relevant water allocation plans to vary the allocation available on a bundled water licence.

The majority of the prescribed resources in the Adelaide region have volumetric allocations. The Barossa Prescribed Water Resource Area is the only prescribed resource that still has some water allocations based on the areal extent to be irrigated. These allocations record a maximum irrigation area broken down by crop type and suggest a volume based on a reasonable crop requirement. They are in the process of being converted to volumetric allocations.

Unbundled water licences

In contrast to water licences for prescribed resources in the Adelaide region, water licences for the River Murray Prescribed Watercourse are unbundled and managed as four separate instruments: a water access entitlement, water allocation, water resource works approval and site-use approval.  

Allocation announcements for water licensed to be taken from the River Murray and transported into the Adelaide region may occur at multiple times during the water year and are published online in the South Australian Government Gazette.

Unbundling of water rights is a key initiative of South Australia's water reform agenda – for more information refer to the Major water initiatives section of the Contextual information. The legislative history of all prescribed resources in South Australia can be accessed at the Water for Good website, including gazette notices. 

Any unused water allocations at 30 June each year are forfeited, but the volume forfeited forms credits used to calculate partial carryover into the next year – carryover credits. Carryover credits can accrue over a number of years and accumulate from unused allocations and other sustainable practices. Only the McLaren Vale Prescribed Wells Area and the Barossa Prescribed Water Resources Area allow carryover credits in their water allocation plans. The conditions for accruing carryover credits in the Adelaide region are presented in Table R3.

* The Water Allocation Plan for the River Murray PWC details that carryover of allocations on a Class 6 entitlement is not permitted.
**During the recent prolonged drought special carryover provisions were introduced for irrigators (applicable to Class 3a entitlements). However, this special carryover provision ceased on the 30 June 2011. The South Australian Government will adopt a River Murray Carryover Policy from the 2012–13 year.

Recharged water refers to water that is actively drained or discharged to groundwater. Following a period of time – a recharge period – a portion of this recharged water is allocated for use, called a recharge credit. This arrangement is called managed aquifer recharge (MAR)

The conditions associated with allocating and carrying over recharge credits are described in the relevant water allocation plan and are summarised for each prescribed area in Table R4.

In the Adelaide region, water trading can occur within prescribed resources according to the rules set out in the relevant water allocation plan. There are no provisions for interstate trade of water rights other than transfers in respect to the River Murray Prescribed Watercourse (PWC). Some River Murray PWC licence holders can participate in interstate water trading depending on the class of their licence (Table R5). They can transport water into the Adelaide region, but the water rights remain as River Murray PWC water rights. The water is transported through pipelines by a commercial arrangement with SA Water. River Murray PWC licence holders who use water within the Adelaide region are governed by the regulations of the Water Allocation Plan for the River Murray PWC. 

(Water for Good website)

The rules specified in the respective water allocation plans only allow trade of water rights within the boundary of each prescribed area. The prescribed areas that permit water trading within the Adelaide region are:

• Barossa Prescribed Water Resources Area
• Northern Adelaide Plains Prescribed Wells Area
• McLaren Vale Prescribed Wells Area
• Little Para Prescribed Watercourse.
  

Within each prescribed area all trades are assessed by the South Australian Department for Water based on the principles and objectives stated in the relevant water allocation plan.

The Natural Resources Management Act 2004 (South Australia) controls trade of water licences, entitlements and allocations in the following ways:

• Water property rights only exist in prescribed areas and therefore trade is not possible outside of the prescribed water resources.
• Trade of water licences between prescribed areas within the Adelaide region is not allowed by the relevant water allocation plans. Trade of water licences can occur such that water from one prescribed area can be delivered to a user within the physical boundary of another prescribed resource. However, the volume of water traded will not affect the volume of the destination prescribed resource.
• Any proposed trade must be approved by the relevant South Australian Minister. This power is delegated to officers of the South Australian Department for Water.

The trade restrictions specific to prescribed areas in the Adelaide region are summarised in Table R6.

NA: not applicable; WAP: water allocation plan; WMLR: Western Mt Lofty Ranges