Search results

The Barmah Choke has a default trade restriction in place. This is necessary to protect water delivery to existing water entitlement holders and maintain the river environment in the Choke.

The Barmah Choke is a naturally occurring narrow stretch of the River Murray. A default trade restriction is in place at the Choke to protect water delivery to existing entitlement holders and for environmental reasons.

A large number of water access rights are traded throughout the Basin. These rights all have different characteristics including priority, reliability and form of take.

Flows in the River Murray system vary widely depending on a range of factors, including rainfall, inflows, evaporation and demand for water. We summarise this information each month in the below reports. This page is an archive of reports for previous months.

To continue to support the efficient functioning of water markets in the River Murray system, the Murray–Darling Basin Authority and water agencies and authorities from New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia have been investigating better ways to make trade adjustments.

The Australian Government is working with the New South Wales and Queensland governments to implement a suite of water management tools – the Northern Basin Toolkit.

The operation of the Barmah Choke trade restriction is specified in the Permissible Transfers between Trading Zones Protocol 2010. The opening balance for the Choke water account on 1 July is based on the Snowy water savings that were realised downstream of the Choke in the previous water year and reflected in allocations against the Entitlement Record.

Water delivery shortfalls are rare but occur when available water cannot be delivered to users when they want it. For example, it could happen because demand exceeds the physical capacity of rivers and channels to carry the water, or when demands for water unexpectedly spike and there's not enough time to release additional water from dams to meet the demand.

Water in the River Murray system is shared between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

The Murray–Darling Basin has a highly variable climate, with conditions differing each year and across regions. Planning for wet and dry conditions is a major challenge for river operators, water resource managers and the community.