South East Queensland: Water rights
Operating rules and constraints
Surface water operating rules and constraints
The Gold Coast (Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines 2015a), Logan Basin (Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines 2015b) and Moreton (Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines 2015c) resource operations plans (ROPs) list the operating rules for each water supply scheme (WSS) including:
- environmental management rules
- infrastructure operating levels
- quality of water released from storages
- change in rate of release from infrastructure
- stream flow requirements
- water sharing rules.
Groundwater operating rules and constraints
Groundwater resources within the South East Queensland region have become more developed during the last decade. The groundwater sources within the Lockyer Valley, Warrill Bremer Alluvial, Watercourse Buffer Zone and Cressbrook Alluvial are now managed as groundwater management areas (GMAs) under the Moreton water resource plan.
While the region's groundwater sources continue to be developed, GMAs with operating rules are being implemented to maintain efficient use of water and protect long-term water quality.
Urban water system operating rules and constraints
In 2008, new water restriction rules (Bureau of Meteorology 2016) were introduced for use across all councils in the South East Queensland region. The water restriction levels are high, medium, low and permanent water conservation measures.
The Queensland Water Commission managed the region's water restriction decisions, from when the restriction levels were first implemented until the commission ceased operations on 1 January 2013. The Queensland Water Commission also provided independent advice to the Queensland Government on the South East Queensland region's water security, demand and supply options.
The Commission’s policy functions were moved to the Department of Energy and Water Supply, while its regional planning functions became the responsibility of the new bulk water supply authority, Seqwater and the South East Queensland council water businesses (distributor-retailers).
In July 2015, Seqwater, with the Queensland Government and the South East Queensland council water businesses, released 'Water for life', a 30-year plan for providing safe, secure and cost effective drinking water for South East Queensland.
Water entitlements and other statutory water rights
The Water Act is the primary statutory legislation governing the sourcing and supply of water in Queensland. Under the Water Act, authorisation to abstract water is generally via either:
- a statutory authorisation: the Water Act allows taking water for certain purposes or uses (e.g. riparian landholder watering of stock or for domestic purposes) without an entitlement
- a water entitlement: there are various types of licences or authorities to abstract water under the Water Act, each with different conditions attached to them.
Types of water access entitlements
The Water Act recognises three types of water access entitlement (WAE): water allocations, interim water allocations and water licences.
Water allocations: this type of WAE defines its holder's share of the water resource that is not attached to land and can be traded within the trading rules in the relevant plan. Water allocations do not expire. They may comprise a volumetric maximum rate of abstraction, nominal volume (representing the share of the available resource), volumetric limit (entitlement volume limit), flow conditions and other access conditions. The conversion of interim water allocations into water allocations occurs through the water planning process. Most of these conversions have already taken place in Queensland. When the Queensland term for water allocations is used in the 2015 Account, it will be referred to as 'Water allocations (Water entitlement).
Interim water allocations: this type of WAE defines its holder's share of the water resource that is attached to land and can not be traded unless specified in the Queensland Water Regulation 2002. Interim water allocations do not expire. They may comprise a volumetric limit, flow conditions and other access conditions. The conversion of interim water allocations into water allocations occurs through the water planning process. Most of these conversions have already taken place in Queensland.
Water licences: this type of WAE attaches to land and is for a fixed period of time, usually between 5 and 10 years. Conditions attached to the WAE water licence, may include flow conditions, maximum rates of abstraction, maximum pump sizes, storage conditions or any other conditions that may be applied. Each licence is assigned to a specific location and is generally not tradable. WAE water licences are progressively converted into water allocations through the water planning process.
Water allocations
In the South East Queensland region, a limit (expressed as a percentage) is announced against an entitlement at the start of a water year. This is used to determine the maximum volume of water that may be abstracted by a WAE holder in a water year. Additional announcements may be made during the year if additional water becomes available. Urban holders of regulated entitlements have the same announced limit applied to their entitlement as other regulated entitlement holders of the same priority entitlements. In general, a water year is from 1 July–30 June unless otherwise specified in the ROP or IROP. Very recently, ROP amendment changed Lower Lockyer WSS's water year to 1 July–30 June.
Announced allocations are published on the WSS operator's website.
A water allocation is announced for water access entitlements on a seasonal basis depending on how much water is available in the water resource from which the allocation is drawn. The Water Act recognises two different types of water allocations:
- water allocations which are supplied from a water supply scheme known as supplemented allocations
- water allocations to take water from the natural flow of the river or from groundwater known as unsupplemented allocations.
Supplemented and unsupplemented water allocations are managed and administered separately. For the purpose of the 2015 Account, the term 'supplemented' is equated to 'regulated', and the term 'unsupplemented' is equated to 'unregulated'. These are legislative terms and may not precisely match the definitions used in the 2015 Account for 'regulated' and 'unregulated' (see 'Glossary'). Table C4 shows the terminology used in Queensland for water management and the equivalent term in the National Water Account.
| 2015 Account | Equivalent Queensland terminology |
| Water access entitlement | water allocation interim water allocation water licence |
| Water allocation | announced allocation |
| Regulated | supplemented |
| Unregulated | unsupplemented |
| Entitlement trade | allocation trade |
| Allocation trade | seasonal water assignments |
| Security | priority |
The annual volume able to be abstracted under a supplemented water entitlement will vary from year to year and is referred to as an 'announced allocation'. The announced allocation is based on the sharing rules and formulae noted in the ROP for the WSSs and the availability of water within the WSS.
The announced allocation percentage varies between priority groups and between WSSs, and is announced on the first day of the water year by the ROL holders. If an announced allocation percentage is initially below 100%, subsequent announcements may be made to increase the percentage. The percentage cannot be reduced during a water year and once the announced allocation percentage reaches 100%, no further increases to the limit can occur.
Trades and water rights transfers
Water market rules: interstate trading
There is no interstate trading between the South East Queensland region and New South Wales. More information on trading during the 2014–15 year can be found in the Water rights, entitlements, allocations and restrictions section in the 'Water access and use' note.
Water market rules: inter-valley and within-valley trading
Regulated water allocations (water entitlements) in Queensland are separate from land rights, and are tradeable and registered on the Water Allocation Register. This register is managed by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines. Currently in most of Queensland's water markets only surface water allocations can be permanently transferred; in the future, the water market may be further expanded to allow for the permanent transfer of groundwater access entitlements, as is now the case in the Burnett and Fitzroy ROP areas.
Following the release of the Gold Coast, Logan, and Moreton ROPs in 2009, the trading of water allocations commenced in the South East Queensland region. Rules covering trade of regulated water access entitlements can be found in chapters 5–7, part 2, of the Moreton ROP and chapter 5, part 2 of Gold Coast and Logan ROPs.
The rules for water allocation trading (temporary trades, called 'seasonal water assignment' using Queensland terminology) are detailed in the Water Regulation 2002, and the relevant ROP and IROL (Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines 2015f).
Both entitlement trade and allocation trade occurred within the South East Queensland region during the 2014–15 year. Information on these trades in the South East Queensland region during the 2014–15 year can be found in Water market activity.
There was no trade between the South East Queensland region and any other part of Queensland during the 2014–15 year.
Restrictions on trade
No restrictions on trade other than the rules listed in the Gold Coast, Logan and Moreton ROPs exist. The rules specify geographic limits for trading that ensure water allocation security objectives and environmental flow objectives are achieved.