The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) would like to provide an update about the upcoming July 2025 trade openings.

In response to consistently high demand during key trade events, in October 2024, the Victorian Water Register (VWR) temporarily moved to a randomisation approach rather than ‘first in, first served’ for the Goulburn to Murray trade openings. The approach reduces load on the VWR during the trade opening and ensures the opportunity is reliably made available to all market participants.

Following a review of these processes, DEECA will continue to use a randomisation approach for all Goulburn to Murray trade openings of 2025. Additionally, in partnership with WaterNSW, a joint randomisation process will be implemented for the 2025 Barmah trade opening.

Other smaller trade openings, including the Broken trade out limit (made available in July each year), will continue to operate without change. This is because the impact on reliable service delivery from the VWR isn’t as large as Barmah and Goulburn to Murray trade openings.

DEECA thanks users who provided feedback on the randomisation approach. A summary of feedback provided will be included in our next information update.

Key Information

• Scheduled Goulburn to Murray trade openings for July, October, and December 2025, will use the randomisation approach.
• July Barmah Trade Opening: Victoria and WaterNSW have developed a joint randomisation process, ensuring a unified approach regardless of the state of application.
• Eligibility Criteria Update: Applications selecting ‘trade remaining balance’ instead of a specific volume will be deemed ineligible for the randomisation pool. This change is detailed in the updated application procedure.
• Other Trade Openings, including the Broken trade out limit, will continue to operate on a first-in, first-served basis.
• More information including opening times and volumes for all trade openings will be announced in the lead up to the July events.

What does this mean for the July 2025 Barmah trade opening?

All eligible applications, irrespective of their state of origin, will be processed from a single, unified queue. Processing will follow the order established by the joint randomisation process to be undertaken by DEECA and WaterNSW.

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is expected to announce the Barmah trade opportunity in the coming weeks, which will then be added to the available trade balance for the July Barmah Trade Opening.

 PDF: New Trade Application Procedure (Victoria) (169 kb)

 PDF: Joint Protocol for Trade Application Submissions, Assessment and Processing (Victoria and NSW) (1.8 MB)

If you have any questions, contact us on waterregister.support@deeca.vic.gov.au.