Important trade opening information for the start of the 2025–26 water year

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Important trade opening information for the start of the 2025–26 water year

Details: 04 June 2025

This article contains important information relating to July 2025 trade openings, including relevant dates, processes and estimated volumes. Information about end of water year closing times for the VWR and application deadlines is available here. 

Important opening dates:

Tuesday 1 July 2025

The Broken Trade Out and NSW to Vic trade opportunities open at 10 am AEST on Tuesday 1 July 2025. These openings will proceed with a first in, first served approach, with automated processing of applications.

Wednesday 2 July 2025

The MDBA Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade opportunities will have a 7-hour submission window on Wednesday 2 July 2025, from 7 am to 2 pm AEST. Eligible applications submitted for these opportunities will be randomised to create an order for processing starting Thursday 3 July.

Information for Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade openings (Wednesday 2 July 2025)

The Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade opportunities will both open for submissions on Wednesday 2 July 2025.

Applications for the Barmah trade opportunity and/or the Goulburn-to-Murray trade opportunity should be submitted during the submission window, between 7 am and 2 pm on Wednesday 2 July 2025.
During the submission window, water market participants should submit trade applications through My Water or the Broker Portal. All trade applications during this period will be referred for manual processing.
After the submission window closes:
- DEECA and WaterNSW will undertake a joint randomisation process to determine a processing order for eligible Barmah applications, in the presence of an independent observer.
- DEECA will undertake a randomisation process to determine a processing order for eligible Goulburn-to-Murray applications, in the presence of an independent observer.
Manual processing of Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray applications, in the order determined by the randomisation processes, will commence on Thursday 3 July 2025.
All Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade applications will continue to be referred to manual processing until the applications received during the submission window have been processed.

Please note – As previously advised, applications to ‘Trade Remaining Balance’ will not be eligible for randomisation for either trade opening. This is a change from the eligibility criteria that was used in the October and December 2024 Goulburn-to-Murray trade openings.

Market participants are encouraged to lodge trade applications throughout the 7-hour submission window. Participants are not required to submit trade applications as soon as the submission window opens. A trade application submitted at the start of the submission window will have the same chance to succeed as an application submitted at the end of the window.

For information and frequently asked questions about the trade application process for Barmah and Goulburn-to-Murray trade openings, click here.

Estimated volumes for trade opportunities

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority advised that the 1 July 2025 opening Barmah trade balance would be about 39 GL.

The opening volume for the July Goulburn-to-Murray trade opening is expected to be around 99 GL.

Trade opportunities, 1–2 July 2025: summary table

Trade limit	Opening time	Opening balance
Broken Trade Out Limit	10 am 1 July 2025	1,500 ML Trade is allowed when the Broken system’s intervalley trade (IVT) account owes less than 1,500 ML to the Goulburn system.
NSW to VIC trade limits	10 am 1 July 2025	Lesser of a net annual volume of 200,000 ML or a volume that keeps the risk of spill from Victoria’s share of Hume and Dartmouth reservoirs below 50%.
Barmah Choke trade limit	Submission window: 7 am – 2 pm, 2 July 2025	Approximately 39,000 ML. Please see MDBA announcement on opening Barmah trade opportunity.
Goulburn-to-Murray trade limit	Submission window: 7 am – 2 pm, 2 July 2025	Approximately 99,000 ML.

For any further information or assistance with the above, reach out to the Victorian Water Register team on waterregister.support@delwp.vic.gov.au.