About the agencies
The NSW Department of Planning and Environment and WaterNSW share the responsibility for granting and managing water licences and approvals in NSW. The Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) is the independent regulator that ensures compliance with these licences and approvals.
Which entity you deal with depends on who you are and the type of licence or approval you need.
NSW Department of Planning and Environment (this website)
is responsible for:
Controlled activity approvals
for work on waterfront land, near a river, lake or estuary
Water licences and approvals
to extract groundwater or surface water that are required by or for:
- Councils
- State or Commonwealth government agencies or authorities
- Major water utilities, water supply authorities or irrigation corporations
- Aboriginal commercial, Aboriginal community development, Aboriginal cultural or Aboriginal environmental subcategories of access licence
- Licensed network operators under the Water Competition Act 2006 (NSW)
- Entities carrying out activities under the Mining Act 1992 (NSW), the Offshore Minerals Act 1999 (NSW), the Petroleum (Onshore) Act 1991 (NSW) or the Petroleum (Offshore) Act 1982
- State Significant Development of State Significant Infrastructure.
Water NSW
is responsible for:
Water licences and approvals
to extract groundwater or surface water that are required by or for:
- rural landholders
- rural industries
- developments that are not state-significant development or significant state infrastructure.
Trade
of water access licences, licence entitlements and water allocations for everyone.
Security interests and claims
managing the registration of security interests and the security interest claim process.
More information is on the Security Interests section of the Licences pages on the WaterNSW website.
Legal searches
to assist customers to identify water-related interests held under the Water Management Act 2000 for specific parcels of land.
These searches are usually undertaken by solicitors acting on behalf of a purchaser to:
- identify any approvals granted under the Water Management Act 2000 that may be associated with the property to be included in the sale and transferred on settlement.
- assist the prospective purchaser to evaluate the property as a commercial enterprise
- identify any charges or restrictions associated with the approvals if these entitlements are to be transferred to the new landholder.
More information is available in the legal searches section of the WaterNSW website.
Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR)
NRAR is an independent regulator responsible for compliance and enforcement with water management legislation. NRAR engages with water users, industry bodies, government departments and the wider community on matters relating to water compliance.
You can report illegal or suspicious water activities on the NRAR website.
Not sure about what you need?
We've developed the Water Assist tool to help you work out who to talk to and what steps to take to get the licences and approvals you need.