Processing times for water trades

The tables below show the percentage of trades processed by the Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water within the indicated time frame. The intended service standards are set by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

For reports on processing times for supplemented water assignments, visit Sunwater.

Seasonal water assignments – temporary trade

Table 1: Percentage of unsupplemented seasonal water assignment applications processed from 1 July 2023 to 29 February 2024.

Seasonal water assignment processing requirements Total number of seasonal
water assignments processed
Number processed
within
standard requirement
Performance against
standard
Intended
service
standard
Interstate seasonal water assignments—percentage processed within 10 business days 1 1 100% 90%
Intrastate seasonal water assignments—percentage processed within 5 business days 117 106 91% 90%

Note: National Water Initiative terminology equivalent is 'allocation' trade.

Permanent water trades

Table 2: Percentage of permanent water trades registered on the Water Allocation Register from 1 July 2023 to 29 February 2024.

Permanent trade registration requirement Total number of permanent trades processed Number processed within 10 days Performance against standard Intended service standard

Registration of permanent trades within 10 business days

436 374 86% 90%

Note: National Water Initiative terminology equivalent is 'water access entitlement' trade.

Additional notes

  • The time frame for the service standard commences on receipt of the application forms and associated fee.
  • The service standard is a measure of business days only.
  • An application finalised on the same day it is received is taken as being finalised in 1 day.
  • Recorded processing times exclude the time taken to return an application for correction or further information. Only the time spent by the department processing the trade is recorded.
  • Performance against the service standard is reported as a cumulative monthly figure.