The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder is selling up to eight gigalitres of its annual Goulburn River catchment allocation.
Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder Dr Simon Banks said wet conditions, over the past three years, had allowed for the sale.
"Nature has been doing the heavy lifting this year in the Goulburn, with the natural high river flows meeting many environmental needs such as providing food and habitat for native fish and other river animals like yabbies and platypus," Dr Banks said.
He said that meant he was able to trade about 8GL, or three per cent, of the annual allocations in the Goulburn River catchment, making it available to other users.
"This is a sale of annual water allocations, not the permanent water entitlements owned by the commonwealth," Dr Banks said.
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The sale via competitive tender, opens at 10:00am on Monday, January 30 and will close at 3:00pm on Friday February 3, 2023.
The details of the sale can be found at https://www.dcceew.gov.au/water/cewo/trade
The proceeds of selling water allocations must be used to:
- fund activities to improve the delivery of environmental water and maximise environmental outcomes and support cultural connections and/or
- purchase allocations to meet environmental needs in other valleys.
Dr Banks said since 2014, the CEWH had sold water allocations on five occasions and committed nearly $5 million to activities, which supported the recovery of threatened species and improved wetland health.
Further sales of annual water allocations in the southern connected Basin may be considered by the CEWH later this year.
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