Trade from the King to the lower Ovens is possible from 1 July this year.
The Minister for Water has approved changes to the trading rules to allow trade of water shares and high-reliability allocation from the King system to the lower Ovens system downstream of the confluence of the King and Ovens Rivers, under certain conditions.
This means that:
- A King water share may be linked (tagged) to a property in the lower Ovens, allowing water to be used there. However, you will not be able to use this water if there are restrictions in place on either the Ovens or the King. This may require an amendment to the conditions on your works licence so that restrictions can be applied when needed.
- High-reliability allocation from the King system can be taken in the lower Ovens system through tagged allocation accounts, which can be set up by your water corporation. These new accounts will allow users to trade and use King allocation in the lower Ovens, while at the same time preventing the movement of King water up the Ovens above the confluence.
- Spill-reliability allocation can be given to another person by linking the spill-reliability water share to their allocation account. This can be also done by a limited term transfer of the water share.
- Trade of allocation can occur from the Ovens back into the King system, limited by the previous volume traded out. You can find out about available backtrade opportunities here.
Trade from the Ovens system to the Murray is not allowed. The Ovens is partly a regulated system but at times may be operated like an unregulated system, with rosters and restrictions. There is currently no legal or administrative ability to extend these operational mechanisms outside the Ovens to the Murray, which means that allowing trade out may cause third party impacts in the Murray.