Murray Darling water tender: Top 20 sellers listed

One NSW irrigator has sold $37 million worth of water to the federal government’s bridging-the-gap tender. See the top 20 water sellers.

Top 20 sellers of water to the federal government’s bridging-the-gap tender.

A NSW Namoi irrigator has topped the list of 75 irrigators and speculators who have sold their water entitlements to the federal government under the Murray Darling Basin bridging-the-gap tender.

Publicly available AusTender contract records show Merah North cotton and mixed cropping farmer Nigel Melbourne sold eight parcels of water to the government in March and April, worth a total of $37.4 million.

While the water deals were struck early in the year, the NSW water register shows Mr Melbourne’s largest 1215-megalitre parcel of Lower Namoi general security entitlements was not transferred to the Commonwealth until August 5, for $15.795m or $13,000/ML.

The register also shows Mr Melbourne sold another 1842 parcel of supplementary Lower Namoi water to the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder for $9.3m, worth $5050/ML, which was not transferred until October 1.

Converting the water to long-term diversion limit equivalents, using the CEWH’s own values, shows it paid $17,333/ML for the general security water and $18,165/ML for the supplementary water, which will be used to boost environmental flows.

The Weekly Times was unable to contact Mr Melbourne for comment, but did report on him snapping up five neighbouring farms in August, from Australian-born UK hedge-fund billionaire Lord Michael Hintze, for almost $29.5m.

Fellow Merah North irrigator Jono Phelps came in second in the water sale rankings, raking in $12m on the sale of six parcels of Namoi water.

Others who appeared high on the list were the Todd family from St George in Queensland, who pulled in $9.6m and Windella Water Holdings of Moree, who sold $9.47m of water to the Commonwealth.

The Aware Water Group, which is linked to filmmaker and comedian Rob Sitch, sold $6.42m of entitlement under the federal tender, while fellow market speculator Duxton Water sold $5.4m of its entitlement.

The federal government reported it had purchased just 26,000ML of the 44,300ML it was seeking under the tender, but has since launched another round to find 70GL and called for expressions of interest from larger irrigators and corporate players to offer at least 20,000ML each.

Meanwhile investors are being told now is the time to buy entitlements.

The Regal Investment Fund, which parts owns Kilter, told investors last week that the federal buyout of about 600,000ML of consumptive water for the environment flows was a great opportunity.

The Regal presentation highlighted that 600,000ML represented eight times the current annual market turnover of entitlement across the Basin and that the bridging the gap tender “paid a 25 per cent premium over valuation”.

Kilter chief executive Cullen Gunn said that while the company had not sold entitlement to the Commonwealth, it made sense to invest as the “less supply you have means higher prices”.