General authorisation
- When it applies
- Smaller volumes, lower-risk uses, and a catchment where the department has published a general authorisation that covers your use.
- What you do
- You register the use with the department instead of applying for a licence. No public participation and, in most cases, no specialist studies.
- How long
- Usually a few weeks.
- Watch out for
- General authorisations are published per water use and per catchment, and they get revised. Being covered last year does not mean you are covered this year, and going over the threshold puts you back in licence territory.
Existing lawful water use
- When it applies
- The use was already lawfully happening in the two years before the National Water Act took effect on 1 October 1998, and it has continued.
- What you do
- You register and verify the use with the department, with evidence of the historical use — old permits, irrigation records, aerial photographs, scheme allocations.
- How long
- Verification can take several months.
- Watch out for
- An existing lawful use is not automatic. If you have never registered it, or you have expanded beyond what was historically used, the extra use needs its own authorisation.
Water use licence
- When it applies
- Larger volumes, discharge of waste water, mining, work inside a watercourse, or any use no general authorisation covers.
- What you do
- A full application with specialist studies, public participation and a departmental review before a decision is signed.
- How long
- Eight to eighteen months for the decision, plus preparation time.
- Watch out for
- This is where most of the cost and delay sits, so it is worth being certain that a licence is genuinely required before starting one.
What decides which one you need
Three things, mostly. How much water is involved, what you are doing with it, and where the property sits. A borehole on a smallholding in one catchment may be covered by a general authorisation. The same borehole in a stressed catchment, or at three times the volume, will need a licence.
Discharging waste water almost always needs a licence, whatever the volume, because of what it can do to the resource. Any physical work inside the regulated area of a river or wetland usually does too.
It is also common to need more than one route at once: an existing lawful use registered for the historical irrigation, plus a licence for the expansion on top of it. We map all of them in one assessment so nothing is missed.
A quick way to think about it
- Small, ordinary, low-risk use? Start by checking the general authorisation for your catchment.
- Been doing it since before 1998? Look at existing lawful use verification first.
- Putting anything back into the water, or working in a river? Assume a licence.
- Mining, or several uses across several properties? Assume a licence, and expect specialist studies.
We will confirm it for you in writing
Our water use review checks every use on the property against the Act, gives you a written answer on which route applies, and lists the documents your file will need. The fee comes off your application price if you appoint us.