Cultural water access for Aboriginal people

You can get an Aboriginal cultural water access licence for all water sources in NSW. This includes rivers, creeks, streams and lakes as well as groundwater (the water below the land surface).

The department's Water Group reviews, assesses and issues Aboriginal cultural access licences and associated approvals

Individuals and Aboriginal community organisations are encouraged to coordinate applications for Aboriginal cultural water access licences in their community to secure adequate cultural water access for the entire community. If there is a need for more than 10ML, more than one licence can be applied for and issued.

Yes. Multiple Aboriginal people and/or organisations can apply for an Aboriginal cultural water access licence at the same location or cultural site.

No. An Aboriginal person or organisation can apply for several Aboriginal cultural water access licences.

Each licence can be for up to 10 ML/year.

A single site may have access to multiple water sources, such as:

• an alluvial or sand aquifer
• a fractured or porous rock aquifer
• a regulated river
• an unregulated river (in stream)

Alluvial or sand aquifers have groundwater between grains of sand, gravels and other uncemented sediments.

Fractured or porous rock aquifers have groundwater in pores and cracks in the rock

Regulated rivers contain water storages in dams and weirs. The river level and flow rate can be controlled, or regulated, by water being released from, or held back in, a storage.

An unregulated river may have minor water storages (such as weirs) but its level and flow rate cannot be controlled by water being stored or released. It also includes minor streams and overland flow that can be captured by farm dams.

If water is needed in different water sources, multiple licences can be applied for in each water source.

As an example, you may have one property but would like to access a stream or river to pump water to a small cultural wetland. In a different location on your property, away from the river, you may need to access groundwater via a pump to water bush food. To take water from each water source, you would need two Aboriginal cultural water access licences.

There is no limit to the number of applications that an application can submit. However, the number of Aboriginal cultural water access licences that can be granted in a water source is limited by the available water shares.

Measures are also in place to ensure enough water remains for critical human, animal and the environmental needs.

How water is allocated explains the order of priorities.

If you plan to pump Aboriginal cultural water from a river, stream, lake or aquifer for use, you need to consider three factors:

Land ownership or occupancy: for the department to issue a licence we need to understand that you have the legal right to access the water source in the location you are proposing. This may mean you own or lease the land. Or you have the landowner's written permission to pump cultural water and use it on the land. The landowner could be an Aboriginal land council, the local Aboriginal community, a local council, the Indigenous Land and Sea Corporation, an Aboriginal Corporation or a private landowner who wants to support the local mob.

Water supply work approval: you need to apply for a water supply work approval to install a pump, a bore or build a dam (depending on the size and type of the dam). This can be applied for after the Aboriginal cultural water access licence is issued, and a dealing (or water trade) can then be done to link the approval to your licence. These work approval applications are also free for Aboriginal people and organisations.

Location and use of water: you need to confirm where you are going to pump the water to and how you will pump it. Explain details such as:

• if the water will fill a natural billabong, water hole, wetland or swamp that you use for cultural purposes
• if the water will fill a dam, tank or artificial wetland that has been built on the land from where you will then use it for cultural purposes
• if you need solar, electric or petrol pumps to get the water from one place to another.

Aboriginal Cultural access licences are provided free of charge to eligible applicants until mid-2029.

Once an Aboriginal Cultural access licence is granted, there is a $351.40 fee for each licence, for each applicant, payable to Land Registry Services.

If a licence application needs to be revised by the applicant, there will be a fee of $64.40 to WaterNSW.

If water from an Aboriginal cultural water licence is kept in a regulated river you will need to order the water to a specific location. Because of the way flows are controlled in regulated rivers it will not be available to other licence holders in that water source. However, it could be used further downstream by other water users in another water source. In most unregulated rivers, there is no way to ensure that the water will not be used by other downstream licence holders. Some protection may be available in the Barwon-Darling (Baarka) River, and potential applicants in this water source, who wish to use their water instream, are encouraged to discuss this with departmental staff prior to making an application.

The department’s Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property Protocol protects the rights that Aboriginal people have to their cultural heritage and intellectual property. This includes protecting traditional knowledge and sacred sites.

A detailed location may not be required for the Aboriginal cultural water access licence application, particularly if the Aboriginal cultural water is proposed to stay in the river, stream, lake, billabong, water hole, wetland, aquifer or swamp. Applicants are encouraged to discuss cultural sensitivities with departmental officers at the time of application to work through individual solutions to maintaining ICIP.