Australian water markets report 2013-14

The Australian water markets report 2013-14 presents national statistics on water markets, including water entitlement trade and water allocation trade volumes and prices, trade processing times and environmental water holdings and trade. The report summarises water trading activity within surface and groundwater systems across Australia, with a particular focus on the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) region.

This report is the seventh edition in the series. It is the first completed by ABARES since taking responsibility for the report from the former National Water Commission.

The report shows how water market activity in Australia has grown between 2007-08 and 2013-14, including increased volumes of water entitlement trade and water allocation trade. At a regional level, the vast majority of water trading activity still occurs within the MDB, particularly trade of surface water allocations in the Southern MDB.

Water allocation prices were generally higher in 2013-14 relative to 2012-13 due to slightly lower storage levels and water allocation volumes. However, water prices during 2013-14 remained well below the peaks observed during the drought years of 2007 to 2009.

The report shows the progress of the Commonwealth in recovering water for the environment to satisfy the Basin Plan reforms. In recent years there has been a switch in water recovery away from buybacks and towards infrastructure upgrades.

For the first time, the report presents statistics on environmental water transfers: where environmental allocations held in one region (for example, the Victoria Murray) are transferred to a 'delivery partner' (a local environmental agency) in another connected region (for example, the South Australian Murray). These transactions have no financial component but are included in official trade statistics. In 2013-14 environmental transfers accounted for over 40 per cent of total water allocation trade by volume in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Accompanying this report is a spreadsheet containing the data tables underlying the figures and maps presented in the report and the Australian Water Markets Database (a database of all water trades across Australia from 2007-08 to 2013-14).