Water Act 1989.

The Act, consisting of numerous sections divided into 30 Parts and completed by 7 Schedules, is a comprehensive enactment providing for preliminary matters (Part 1), rights and liabilities (2), water resources assessment and accounting (3), establishment of the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (3AA), water shares (3A), water allocation (bulk entitlements and licences) (4), delivery of interstate water (4A), water use licences and water use registrations (4B), water works (5), levee maintenance on Crown land (5AA), Victorian water register (5A), water corporations (6), districts and land management areas (6A), duties of water corporations (6B), storage managers (6C), powers of Government (7), reconfiguration plans (7A), water supply (8), sewerage (9), waterway management (10), irrigation (11), salinity mitigation (11A), access over lands (12), finance and accountability (13), process for transfer of property of authorities (13A), procedures for making by-laws (13B), enforcement (14), general provisions (15), transitional, validation and other provisions — Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2019 (16), transitional provisions — Water and Catchment Legislation Amendment Act 2021 (17), amendments consequential to the repeal of Part 1B of the Water Industry Act 1994 (18).
One of the main purposes of the Act is to overhaul the hitherto controlling system of riparian rights to water resources utilization. To this end, the statute vests a superior right in the State "to the use, flow and control of water" in streams, lakes and other natural and manmade collections of water, and groundwater (sect. 7). At the same time, the rights of riparian landowners to take water for household, stockwatering, kitchen and garden irrigation purposes, are expressly safeguarded. So is the landowner's right to collect and use rainwater that falls on his or her land. All these rights can be exercised free from government interference, but users may be required to inform the Government of how much water they utilize (sect. 8). Further restrictions may stem from the Government's authority to curtail these rights in times of water shortages (sect. 51). Licences may also be granted for in-stream water uses, i.e. maintaining "aquatic, riparian, floodplain and wetland ecosystems", and aesthetic, scientific and cultural values; recreational activities, commercial fishing, the maintenance of water quality, and navigation (sects. 3(1) and 52). Licences are granted on application, but auction and the invitation of tenders at the Government's discretion are also prescribed modes of granting water use licences (sects. 57 and 129). Liability for damages to third party property arises out of he unauthorized use or pollution of water (sect. 15). Relevant cases are handled by an administrative Appeals Tribunal, to consist of a legal practitioner and two lay members, all drawn from the Government department in charge of physical planning (sect. 19). For purposes of protecting groundwater from depletion, the Government may declare special groundwater supply protection areas, and impose restrictions on the basis of a management plan for the area. Compensation to affected groundwater users is payable under given circumstances (sects. 27 and 30). Irrigation water rights are made transferable amongst irrigators only, subject to prior Government approval. Transfers may be temporary or also permanent. In the latter case, water rights "migrate" from the transferor's holding to the transferee's, and become attached to the latter's holding. In the case of a temporary transfer, instead, water rights remain attached to the transferor's holding (sects. 224 and 226). Water rights held for public water supply purposes are likewise transferable, subject to dedication of the relevant water to the provision of public water supplies and to the prior consent of the government (sect. 46). Water related environmental interests find explicit recognition and protection through different mechanisms. Environmentally significant in-stream water uses are eligible for the grant of a licence on a par with other traditional uses of water, and are protected from competing uses as a result (sect. 52). In addition, land uses susceptible to interfere with the drainage regime of catchments must be made subject to special conditions for the protection of surface waterbodies, wetlands and aquifers (sect. 12). Furthermore, land uses within declared Environmental Areas or Recreational Areas are subject to controls in the general interest of furthering the area's water-based environmental or recreational value (sect. 107). Finally, polluters of water are liable for damages to third parties, regardless of negligence (sect. 15).