Alanvale Pty Ltd v Southern Rural Water

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

28/09/2009

LITIGATION TYPE

Project Approval - Adaptation

SUBJECT MATTER

Water

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

Review of water authority's decision not to grant licences for groundwater extraction. The Tribunal said it was a matter of strategic management of groundwater resources and the long term sustainability of groundwater as a valuable but finite resource, and as a result it had to consider climate change impacts on rainfall. Tribunal applied the precautionary principle and decided the uncertainty about the existing and future availability of groundwater due to climate change and the serious consequences for depletion of the resource meant it should not grant the extraction licences at this point in time.

CASE DOCUMENTS

Alanvale Pty Ltd v Southern Rural Water [2010] VCAT 480