Murray–Darling Basin
37.1 Surface water allocation trade within region

Supporting information
Quantification approach

Supporting information

The line item includes information on water allocation trade within the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) region. The volumetric values for the line item for the 2011–12 year were 4,104,354 ML for the whole MDB region.

The following two tables provide a summary and breakdown information on allocation trade within the region.

Summary of water allocation trade in the MDB region during the 2011–12 year
Surface Water Resource Plan (WRP) area		State/Territory	Volume (ML)
Code	Name	State/Territory	Purchased to the WRP area	Sold from the WRP area
SW19	Warrego–Paroo–Nebine	Qld	520	520
SW18	Condamine–Balonne	Qld	7,424	7,424
SW17	Moonie	Qld	0	0
SW16	Qld Border Rivers	Qld	73,914	47,802
SW15	NSW Border Rivers	NSW	7,226	33,338
SW11	Barwon–Darling Watercourse	NSW	0	0
SW12	NSW Intersecting Streams	NSW	0	0
SW14	Gwydir	NSW	36,272	36,272
SW13	Namoi	NSW	24,280	24,281
SW10	Macquarie–Castlereagh	NSW	202,302	202,302
Sub-total Northern Basin			*351,939*	*351,939*
SW9	Lachlan	NSW	131,200	131,200
SW8	Murrumbidgee NSW	NSW	673,593	740,411
SW7	NSW Murray and Lower Darling	NSW	1,083,855	1,063,162
SW3	Northern Victoria	Vic.	447,628	427,533
SW2	Vic. Murray	Vic.	693,402	945,177
SW4	Wimmera–Mallee	Vic.	0	0
SW6	Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges	SA	n/a	n/a
SW5	SA Murray	SA	722,737	444,932
SW1	ACT	ACT	n/a	n/a
Sub-total Southern Basin			3,752,415	3,752,415
Total for the region			4,104,354	4,104,354

Details of water allocation trade in the MDB region during the 2011–12 year
WRP area	Sustainable diversion limit (SDL) area		State	Entitlement Class	Volume (ML) for the 2011–12 year
WRP area	Code	Name	State	Entitlement Class	Purchased to the SDL area	Sold from the SDL area
SW19 Warrego–Paroo–Nebine	SS28	Warrego	Qld	Supplemented	520	520
SW18 Condamine–Balonne	SS26	Condamine–Balonne	Qld	Supplemented	7,424	7,424
SW16 Qld Border Rivers	SS24	Qld Border Rivers	Qld	Unsupplemented	0	0
				Supplemented	73,914	47,802
				Sub-total	73,914	47,802
Sub-total Queensland					81,858	55,746
SW15 NSW Border Rivers	SS23	NSW Border Rivers	NSW	High security	0	1,020
				General security	4,255	29,347
				Supplementary	2,971	2,971
				Sub-total	7,226	33,338
SW14 Gwydir	SS22	Gwydir	NSW	High security	580	805
				Local water utility	12	0
				General security	22,457	22,244
				Supplementary	13,223	13,223
				Sub-total	36,272	36,272
SW13 Namoi	SS21	Namoi	NSW	High security	0	3,040
				General security	23,134	20,094
				Supplementary	1,147	1,147
				Sub-total	24,281	24,281
SW10 Macquarie–Castlereagh	SS20	Macquarie–Castlereagh	NSW	High security	294	8,682
				General security	201,612	193,224
				Supplementary	396	396
				Sub-total	202,302	202,302
SW9 Lachlan	SS16	Lachlan	NSW	High security	63,596	26,119
				General security	67,605	105,081
				Sub-total	131,200	131,200
SW8 Murrumbidgee NSW	SS15	Murrumbidgee NSW	NSW	High security	9,394	24,050
				General security	647,799	623,961
				Supplementary	16,400	16,400
				Conveyance	0	76,000
				Sub-total	673,593	740,411
SW7 NSW Murray and Lower Darling	SS18	Lower Darling	NSW	High security	1,508	4,442
				Stock and domestic	2	0
				General security	77,929	55,493
				Sub-total	79,439	59,935
	SS14	NSW Murray	NSW	High security	58,254	101,914
				Stock and domestic	32	0
				Local water utility	0	152
				General security	836,874	879,624
				Supplementary	505	505
				Conveyance	108,750	21,033
				Sub-total	1,004,415	1,003,227
Sub-total New South Wales					2,158,729	2,230,966
SW3 Northern Victoria	SS4	Ovens	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	93	93
	SS5	Broken	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	23	23
	SS6	Goulburn	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	316,986	321,873
	SS7	Campaspe	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	65,942	56,628
	SS8	Loddon	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	64,584	48,916
SW2 Vic. Murray	SS2	Vic. Murray	Vic.	Combined high and low reliability	693,402	945,177
Sub-total Victoria					1,141,030	1,372,711
SW5 SA Murray	SS11	SA Murray	SA	Class 2 – other urban (country town) water supply	0	14,000
SW5 SA Murray	SS11	SA Murray	SA	Combined classes metered	722,737	430,932
Sub-total South Australia					722,737	444,932
Total for the region					4,104,354	4,104,354

The volumes provided in the above table were based on data available at the sources (see 'Data source'). It is believed that the allocation trade volumes provided in this line item for Northern Victoria and Victorian Murray WRP areas are an underestimation due to limitations in the data sources. All intra-organisational trading in New South Wales Murray and Murrumbidgee New South Wales WRP areas have been accounted under general security entitlement class. Therefore the volume for this entitlement class could be overestimated and the volume for high secuirty entitlment class could be underestimated.

In the above table, purchase volumes include water purchased internally and from outside sources for a reporting unit. Sold volumes include water sold internally and to outside areas from a reporting unit. Allocation trade volumes including environmental water trade and transferred volumes due to tagging of entitlements are included in the values provided in this note.

Allocation trade during the 2011-12 year resulted in net inward movement of water for some states and net outward movement for the others as shown in the following table.

Net inter-state allocation trade for the states within the region during 2011–12 year
From	To	Net allocation trade (ML)
New South Wales	Queensland	26,112
New South Wales	South Australia	97,382
Victoria	New South Wales	51,257
Victoria	South Australia	180,423

More details of inter-state trade are available in Water market activity region note.

Total volume of allocation trade reported in the 2011 Account for the 2010–11 year was 2,728,197 ML (purchased to SDL areas) and 2,707,561 ML (sold from SDL areas). The volume was based on available information for the 2011 Account. Particularly information was not available for intra-organisational trading in New South Wales. National Water Commission (2011) sources show that total allocation trade volume in the Basin as 3,385,000 ML for the 2010–11 year.

Quantification approach

Data source

(1) New South Wales Office of Water: water accounting section; (2) National Water Commission: Australian Water Markets Report 2011–12 (National Water Commission 2013); and (3) Murray–Darling Basin Authority: water audit monitoring (WAM) data received from Queensland (4 February 2013), South Australia (15 March 2013) and Victoria (21 March 2013), and stored in the HYDRO database.

Provided by

Bureau of Meteorology (the Bureau).

Method

WAM and NSW Office of Water's water trading data were obtained from water trade registers. Intra-valley trading volumes for NSW Murray, Murrumbidgee NSW and SA Murray were extracted from the National Water Commission's Australian Water Markets Report 2011–12.

Assumptions, limitations, caveats and approximations

The Warrego SDL area in Queensland is predominantly unsupplemented but contains the supplemented Cunnamulla water supply scheme. All the allocation trade within the Warrego region is assumed to be within Cunnamulla water supply scheme.

For New South Wales data, the New South Wales Government does not guarantee that water information data are current nor does it guarantee that the data or the data capturing processes are free from corruption or error. Data provided at this site are preliminary and the department's quality assurance procedures may be incomplete. The department cannot warrant and does not represent that the material that appears on its website or any linked websites is complete, current, reliable and/or free from error.

Uncertainty information

The uncertainty estimate was not quantified.

Murray–Darling Basin37.1 Surface water allocation trade within region