Now complete – Strategic Water Purchase Tender to Bridge the Gap in the Murray-Darling Basin

Dept of Climate Change, Energy, Environment & Water

Evaluation of all tenders across the 6 catchments with remaining targets to bridge the gap to the Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) is complete and all successful tender offers accepted.

The gap is expected to be bridged in 3 New South Wales (NSW) catchments – the Lachlan, Namoi and NSW Murray, with a total recovery of 26.25 GL/y toward the 44.3 GL/y target, once all contracts are finalised.

Completing this tender, is an important step forward in delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

We have also made positive progress towards bridging the gap in the other 3 catchments (Queensland Condamine-Balonne, NSW Border Rivers and NSW Barwon Darling) but more work needs to be done. No offers were received for Condamine-Balonne groundwater.

We remain committed to bridging the gap to the SDLs and will continue working with Queensland and New South Wales to consider a range of market options to secure the remaining volumes.

We have notified all tenderers that the tender is now complete.

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