The 30 June Checklist: What to Do Before the Water Year Ends

The Australian water year runs 1 July to 30 June. What happens at the boundary is mechanical and unforgiving: allocation within your carryover cap rolls forward, allocation above it expires, and trades that miss the settlement cut-off die with the season. Every June we see avoidable losses — almost all of them come down to not checking an account balance until it was too late.

This is the checklist we run with clients from early May. Work through it in order.

1. Check your allocation account balance

Log in to the Victorian Water Register (or WaterNSW / DEW SA equivalent) and confirm exactly what is in your allocation account. Not what you think is there — what is actually there. Common surprises: a purchase that never settled, usage recorded against the wrong account, or allocation from a late determination you forgot arrived.

You cannot make a sell-or-carry decision on a number you have not verified.

2. Confirm your carryover cap

In Victoria you can carry over up to 100% of your water share volume. Hold 400 ML of HRWS and 100 ML of LRWS? Your cap is 500 ML. Anything in your account above that figure at 30 June expires worthless.

If your balance exceeds your cap, you have two options before 30 June: sell the excess, or arrange carryover parking — parking allocation on another holder's entitlement that has spare cap.

NSW operates differently: in the NSW Murray, general security holders can carry over up to 50% of entitlement, subject to a hard account limit of 110% — credits above the limit are forgone at the same 30 June boundary. SA caps carryover at approximately 20% of entitlement volume for Class 3a entitlements.

3. Make the sell-or-carry decision deliberately

Carryover in Victoria is automatic — whatever sits in your account rolls forward. That makes it easy to drift into a decision you never actually made. Force the question: is this water worth more to me next season than the cash is worth now?

The framework from our carryover guide:

Carry when storages are low (spill risk negligible), the seasonal outlook is dry, and next season's opening prices are likely to exceed today's spot. Sell when storages are near capacity, La Nina is forecast, or you need the cash flow.

In June 2026 the answer is unusually clear-cut for most holders — Eildon in the mid-40s, an El Nino likely emerging, models favouring a positive IOD by spring — but run the logic for your own position rather than borrowing the market's.

4. Understand what your carried water becomes

Victorian carryover converts to spillable water on 1 July. It sits in your spillable account, exposed to proportional forfeiture if the storage fills, and cannot be used or traded until the NVRM declares a Low Risk of Spill. In dry years that declaration comes early and the constraint barely bites; in wet years it can lock your water up for months. Details in our spillable accounts explainer.

5. Don't leave selling to the last week

If you are selling rather than carrying, the June market is thin and gets thinner. Registry processing also slows under end-of-year volume — a trade lodged in the final days of June may not complete before the deadline, and an unsettled trade leaves the water in your account, counting against your cap.

Our working rule: have surplus water listed by early June and trades lodged no later than mid-June. Selling in April typically beats selling in June anyway — the June 30 cliff is real in years with heavy carryover overhang.

6. Check pending trades and transfers

Any allocation trade, transfer between your own accounts, or carryover parking arrangement still in flight needs to be approved and registered before 30 June. Chase anything pending. If a counterparty or intermediary is sitting on paperwork, two weeks out is the time to escalate, not the 28th.

7. Review usage against your delivery obligations

If you irrigate in a gravity district, your delivery share determines your access to the channel network and your fixed charges for next year, regardless of how much water you used. Year end is the natural point to ask whether your delivery share still matches your operation — oversized delivery share is dead money, undersized constrains your peak-season flow rate.

8. Plan your opening position for 1 July

The new season starts with an NVRM determination on 1 July, and in a low-opening year the early window (July-September) is usually the cheapest part of the season. Decide now: how much do you need, what is your budget, and will you buy early or stage purchases across the season? Buyers who enter July with a plan consistently out-perform those who start thinking about it at the first heat wave.

9. Book a portfolio review

Year end is when the whole picture is on the table: final allocation percentages, your actual usage, what you paid, what you sold for. Thirty minutes with a broker now is worth more than three hours in a December panic. Talk to us before the rush.

Frequently asked questions

What actually happens to my water at midnight on 30 June?

Allocation within your carryover cap converts to spillable water in the new season. Allocation above your cap is forfeited. Nothing carries "by exception" — the register applies the rules mechanically.

Can I still trade right up to 30 June?

You can lodge trades late in June, but approval and registration take processing time, and end-of-year volume slows the registers. A trade that has not completed by 30 June fails with the old season. Lodge by mid-June to be safe.

Is there a form I need to submit to carry over?

No. Victorian carryover is automatic up to your cap. The Low Risk of Spill declaration you may hear about is made by the storage manager, not by entitlement holders — your job is simply to be under your cap and to have made the hold-or-sell decision deliberately.

What if I have more water than my entitlements can carry?

Sell the excess before 30 June, or park it on another holder's spare entitlement volume via a carryover parking arrangement. Both need to be arranged before the deadline — neither is possible on 1 July.