Water information in Australia
Australians need accurate and timely information to help with decisions about water. It's one of our most valuable resources.
National legislation – the Water Act 2007 and the Water Regulations 2008 – requires the Bureau to collect, manage and share Australia's water information.
Part 7 of the regulations details:
- who must give water information to us
- the time and format for giving this water information.
More than 200 organisations must provide water information to the Bureau. To get a list of these organisations, or to generate a customised report of your organisation's obligations, visit Water Regulations Online.
Water market reforms
To give water users in the Murray–Darling Basin the market information they need, we are developing water market data standards and systems. These will support reporting under the Australian Government's water market reforms.
From 1 July 2026, these new rules and regulations aim to:
- increase transparency and availability of water markets information
- enable regulators to identify and enforce compliance with water market rules.
Learn more about the water market reforms.
In this section
Learn about providing water information, including file formats, licensing data for public use and more.
Find out about the regulations, and supporting documents, on our Water information legislation page.
Learn about water market reforms that aim to improve transparency and availability of water markets data.
Discover the principles and policies that guide how the Bureau works with water information providers, and how we support compliance.
Explore national guidelines and standards for water information, including hydrometric monitoring guidelines and water accounting standards.
Licence to use this content
You can use content on this page in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.