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 South Australia's Natural Resources Management Act 2004, (the Act) and by water licences issued to users (water access entitlements).

Water rights under the Act are administered by the South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources 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.

Prescribed water resources areas covered by a water allocation plan have water licences on issue. Water allocation plans have been adopted in the following areas: Barossa Prescribed Water Resources Area (PWRA), McLaren Vale Prescribed Wells Area (PWA) and Northern Adelaide Plains PWA. The Little Para Prescribed Watercourse (PWC) and Dry Creek PWA do not have an approved water allocation plan; however, water licences are issued for these areas. 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. 

^{1, 4-5, 7-9} Refers to 'underground water' and includes all water occurring naturally underground plus water pumped, diverted or released into a well for storage underground.

^{2, 6, 10, 12} Refers to water in the river channel only.

^{3, 11} Refers to water flowing over the land but not in a watercourse and includes catchment resources (farm dams, run-off and stormwater).

Bundled water licences

In the Adelaide region, water licences for prescribed resources, that is, 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. Current water allocation plans were adopted prior to the changes to the Act to support separated water access entitlements and water allocations. Therefore, a variation to the volume on the water licence is a variation to both the water access entitlement and the water allocation.

The majority of the prescribed resources in the Adelaide region have volumetric allocations. The Barossa PWRA 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 PWC 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 for taking 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. The legislative history of all prescribed resources and gazette notices in South Australia can be accessed at the Water for Good website. 

Any unused water allocations at 30 June each year are forfeited, but the volume forfeited forms credits that are used to calculate partial carry-over into the next year's 'rollover allocation'.  Currently, only the McLaren Vale PWA and the Barossa PWRA allow rollover allocations in their water allocation plans. As of the 2013–14 year, rollover allocations will be permitted in the Western Mount Lofty Ranges PWRA. The conditions for accruing rollover allocations in the Adelaide region are presented in Table R3.

¹ Carry-over limit applies for 2013–14 year and onwards.

^{2, 4} Classes were established to reflect the reliability and transferability of the water in the South Australian section of the Murray–Darling Basin. The classes do not reflect the purpose of use, but they align to individual or groupings of the former purpose-based allocations. Class 6 is for urban water use in metropolitan Adelaide. Class 3a is for irrigation and holding other than in the Qualco Sunlands Groundwater Control area (South Australian Murray–Darling Basin Natural Resources Management [NRM[ Board 2009).

³ Carry-over of allocations on a Class 6 entitlement is not permitted according to the River Murray PWC Water Allocation Plan.

⁵ Carry-over of unused allocations for Class 3a water access entitlements are governed by the River Murray Private Carryover Policy, a policy adopted from the 2012–13 year.

Recharged water refers to water that is actively drained or injected to groundwater. Following a period of time—a recharge period—a portion of this recharged water is determined as potentially extractable and added to the recharge water credit/allocation carried over from previous recharge periods. A water access entitlement and water allocation are then issued to allow extraction of all or part of the recharge water credit/allocation during the water year. This arrangement is called managed aquifer recharge (MAR).

The conditions associated with allocating and carrying over recharge credits/allocations are described in the relevant water allocation plans 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 and the Act. There are no provisions for interstate trade of water rights.

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 PWRA
  
• Northern Adelaide Plains PWA
• McLaren Vale PWA.

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

The Act 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.
• Any proposed trade must be approved by the relevant South Australian Minister. This power is delegated to officers of the South Australian Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources.

The trade restrictions specific to prescribed areas in the Adelaide region are summarised in Table R6. Table R6 includes trade restrictions associated with the Western Mount Lofty Ranges PWRA; however, these restrictions did not apply to the 2012–13 year as the Western Mount Lofty Ranges PWRA Water Allocation Plan was only adopted on 17 September 2014.