Ground water · WaterNSW and NSW Health
Bores and groundwater
In NSW, if your land sits over an aquifer, you may take groundwater for household use or for watering stock without a water licence, but you still need a water supply works approval before you construct the bore, well or spearpoint, and building or using one without it is an offence. The bore must then be drilled by someone holding a driller’s licence issued by WaterNSW.
A guide published by Dotto about Richmond, New South Wales. General information, not legal, technical or health advice.
What “basic landholder rights” cover
Under the Water Management Act 2000, an owner or occupier of land that sits over an aquifer can take water under what WaterNSW calls basic landholder rights, often shortened to BLR. WaterNSW defines the two uses this way:
- Domestic consumption
- Water for normal household purposes in a home on the land.
- Stock watering
- Water for stock animals raised on the land, but not for animals raised intensively and commercially in feedlots or buildings.
- Water use approval
- Not needed when you are taking water under a basic landholder right. The approval for the bore itself is still needed.
WaterNSW processes most of these approvals. In limited cases the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water may assess the bore’s location to make sure it causes no more than minimal harm to the water source and its ecology.
From application to a working bore
- Apply for the approvalApplications for a basic landholder rights bore go through the WaterNSW Customer Portal. WaterNSW’s target is to decide 90% of domestic and stock bore approvals within 10 days; it reported 72% for April to June 2026.
- Hire a licensed drillerWaterNSW says it is your responsibility to make sure a person with a current WaterNSW driller’s licence drills the bore, and that drillers must carry their licence. Give the driller a copy of the approval and its conditions, and WaterNSW strongly advises a written agreement for the work.
- Build to the national minimumWater Sharing Plans in NSW require bores to be built to the Minimum Construction Requirements for Water Bores in Australia, which aim to protect aquifers from contamination and stop uncontrolled flow from poorly built bores.
- Send in the bore construction reportThe driller completes Form A, which records the bore’s location, how it was built and the quality of its water. You must send it to WaterNSW within two months of the bore being finished.
- Test the pump rateFor a domestic and stock bore, WaterNSW recommends test pumping at a constant rate for at least six hours, which shows the safe yield and helps size the pump.
A water supply work approval for a bore used only for basic landholder rights water (other than from the Great Artesian Basin) lasts until it is cancelled.
What the application costs
The fees are determined by IPART and are exempt from GST. These are the ones for a basic landholder rights bore that apply from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.
| Application | Fee |
|---|---|
| New bore, groundwater assessment not required (or it meets triage) | $1,147.50 |
| New bore, groundwater assessment required | $1,498.42 |
| Replacement bore that meets the Water Sharing Plan rules, where the original was built and its Form A received | $679.51 |
Is bore water safe to drink?
Not without checking. NSW Health recommends against using groundwater for drinking, cooking or personal hygiene (bathing and cleaning teeth included) unless it has been tested and appropriately treated, including disinfection. WaterNSW repeats the warning: the landholder is responsible for making sure water taken under a basic landholder right is safe and suitable to use.
NSW Health lists what can get into groundwater, including sewage, animal wastes, farm runoff carrying fertilisers and pesticides, polluted stormwater or floodwater, and naturally occurring chemicals such as arsenic. Because groundwater moves slowly, it says, contamination can persist for a long time.
Siting and protecting a bore
NSW Health sets out five ways “to avoid or minimise water quality problems in groundwater”:
- Site the bore uphill from any wastewater disposal system, such as a septic tank and its trenches, and at least 250 metres away from it.
- Where groundwater touches surface water, as in an open well, or where surface water can run freely down into the bore water (limestone areas, for example), prevent contamination or treat the water.
- Check the ground around the supply regularly and keep surface contaminants away from it. Raise bore heads and wells above ground level and seal them, so floodwaters and surface runoff cannot flow in.
- Draw groundwater only where underground contamination is unlikely, keeping away from sites with known contaminants such as fuel storage tanks, heavy industry and areas of intensive agriculture.
- Keep any above-ground tank that stores groundwater properly sealed and maintained, so birds and small animals cannot get in.
The council’s application form for a new septic system asks for any bore holes to be shown on the plans. See septic and on-site sewage.
NSW Health recommends that people using groundwater know its quality, which can be done by testing its microbiological, chemical and radiological quality, and points to a private water supply testing service. For health advice, your local public health unit is on 1300 066 055.
Farm dams are a separate right
Capturing rainfall runoff in a dam falls under a different right, called harvestable rights, with its own limits and its own calculator for the maximum dam capacity on a property. WaterNSW explains it on its basic landholder rights page, and notes that local planning rules may also require consent for a dam.