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Bore Water Licence NSW: Approvals and Entitlements Explained

If you need a bore water licence NSW landholders can actually rely on, the first thing to understand is that there are two separate permissions involved, not one. Almost every water bore in New South Wales needs an approval before it is drilled, and a separate entitlement before the water can be taken.

Getting this wrong is expensive. An unapproved bore can be ordered decommissioned at the landholder’s cost, and an application that goes in with the wrong supporting information can sit in a queue for months. This page explains which licence applies to your situation. If you would rather not deal with any of it, that is what we are for.

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Two separate things: the works approval and the water entitlement

This is where most landholders get confused, so it is worth being clear up front.

The water supply works approval covers the physical bore: permission to construct and operate the bore itself at a particular location.
The water access licence covers the water: an entitlement to take a given volume from a given water source each year.

Stock and domestic use is the exception, because a basic landholder right lets you take water for those purposes without an access licence. You still generally need approval for the works.

Which bore water licence NSW requires depends on your use

Stock and domestic (basic landholder rights)

If you own or occupy land overlying an aquifer, you have a basic landholder right to take groundwater for domestic use and for watering stock, without needing to buy a water access licence. Domestic use means the household: drinking, washing, the garden, a swimming pool. Stock means animals kept on the property, not commercial intensive operations.

What it does not cover is irrigating a commercial crop, running a business process, or filling a dam for sale. The moment the water earns money, you are into access licence territory.

Test bore licences

A test bore lets you drill to find out what is there before committing to a production bore: whether there is water, at what depth, at what yield and at what quality. It is a sensible first step on a large or uncertain site, and it is a separate approval with its own conditions. A test bore cannot simply be switched over to production use without the right entitlement in place.

Water access licences for irrigation and commercial use

If the water is going onto a commercial crop, into a vineyard, across a golf course, or through any commercial or industrial process, you need a water access licence. A WAL is a property right. It specifies the water source it draws from and the share of that source you are entitled to, and it is bought, sold and held independently of the land.

Most groundwater sources in NSW are fully allocated, which means new licences are rarely issued. In practice, getting an irrigation entitlement usually means acquiring an existing licence on the market rather than applying for a new one. That is a transaction as much as an application, and it needs to be lined up before you drill, not after.

Temporary water access licences and trading

Allocation can be traded temporarily as well as permanently. If you need water for a single season, a temporary trade can cover you without buying a licence outright. If you hold allocation you are not using, it can be traded out. We handle temporary WALs, permanent buying and selling of allocation, and water sharing arrangements between neighbouring landholders.

Minimum construction requirements: AS 2016/3189

Licensing is not the only compliance obligation attached to a bore. Water bores in Australia must be constructed to Australian Standard AS 2016/3189, which sets the minimum requirements for how a bore is drilled, cased, screened, sealed and eventually decommissioned.

The standard exists because a badly constructed bore is a permanent hole into a shared aquifer. Without a proper annular seal, surface runoff, stock effluent and shallow contamination track straight down the outside of the casing into the groundwater that everyone in the district draws on. Once that happens it is close to impossible to undo.

Every bore we drill is constructed to the standard and documented with a Form A bore record. If you have an existing bore and no paperwork, that record is worth chasing up. It tells you the depth, the strata, the casing and screen setup and the yield at completion, and you will need it if you ever apply to vary your entitlement or sell the property.

What we do for you

We organise every kind of bore water licence NSW landholders need, as part of every job we drill and as a standalone service if you already have a driller. That covers basic landholder right approvals for stock and domestic bores, test bore licences, water access licences for irrigation and commercial use, temporary WALs, and the buying, selling and sharing of allocation.

We have a long standing working relationship with Water NSW and the department. That does not mean we get special treatment. It means we know what a complete application looks like, so yours goes in right the first time instead of coming back for more information three weeks later.

Ready to drill? See how our water bore drilling process works.

Common questions about bore licences in NSW

Do I need a licence to drill a bore on my own land?

Owning the land does not by itself give you the right to construct a bore. You generally need a water supply works approval for the bore, and unless the use is purely stock and domestic under a basic landholder right, a water access licence for the water as well.

Can I use my stock and domestic bore to irrigate a crop?

No. A basic landholder right covers the household and animals kept on the property. Commercial irrigation requires a water access licence, and using a stock and domestic bore for it puts you in breach.

What if there is already a bore on my property?

Existing bores still need to be correctly licensed and recorded, and an old bore may predate the current requirements. We can check what is registered against your property and sort out anything missing.

Can I buy a water access licence?

Yes. Water access licences are tradeable property rights, and because most NSW groundwater sources are fully allocated, buying an existing licence is usually the realistic path to an irrigation entitlement. We handle the process.

How long does approval take?

It depends on the licence type, the water source and the current workload at Water NSW. The biggest single factor within your control is whether the application goes in complete, which is where we add the most value.

What happens to a bore that is no longer used?

It has to be decommissioned properly, which means sealing it so it cannot act as a contamination pathway into the aquifer. AS 2016/3189 covers this, and it is not a job to do with a bag of premix and good intentions.

Not sure which bore water licence NSW requires for your situation? Call 0408 915 449 and describe the property and what you want the water for. We will tell you what applies, and we will tell you if you do not need us. Send an enquiry.