New South Wales Consolidated Acts

WATER ACT 1912 - SECT 5

5 Definitions

(1) In this Part, except in so far as the context or subject-matter otherwise indicates or requires:
"Authority" means an authority issued under Division 4 to construct and use a joint water supply scheme.
"Declared local area" means an area declared by the Ministerial Corporation under subsection (4) to be a declared local area.
"Drainage" includes the draining of flood or other waters of a river or lake by means of any work, and "drainage work" includes a work constructed or used for the above purposes.
"existing work" means a work declared by the Ministerial Corporation under subsection (5) to be an existing work for the purposes of this Part.
"Group licence" means a group licence issued under Division 4A.
"Group licence occupiers", in relation to a group licence, means all of the occupiers of lands to which water is supplied by means of a work in respect of which the group licence is held.
"irrigation corporation licence" means an irrigation corporation water management works licence granted under the Irrigation Corporations Act 1994 .
"Joint water supply scheme" means any work to which this Part extends which:

(a) is used or proposed to be used for the purposes of supplying water to the lands of two or more occupiers who are jointly utilising the work or who propose to utilise the work jointly (whether any of those occupiers has occupation of the site of the work or not),

(b) is used or proposed to be used for the purpose of supplying water for irrigating the land or lands of any occupier or occupiers other than the land or lands of the occupier or occupiers of the site of the work, or

(c) is used or proposed to be used (otherwise than pursuant to a licence granted before the commencement of the Water, Crown Lands and Other Acts (Amendment) Act 1970 ) for the purpose of supplying water for irrigating a holding (not being a riparian holding) or part thereof, where that water is, or is to be, conveyed wholly or partly by a work that is used or proposed to be used by any occupier or occupiers (not being the occupier or occupiers of the site of the work) for the purpose of conveying that water in accordance with a right conferred by this Part or pursuant to a licence, authority or permit.

"Lake" includes a lagoon, swamp, or other collection of still water, whether permanent or temporary, not being water contained in an artificial work.
"Licence" means a licence issued under Division 3.
"Licensee" means the holder of a licence.
"Licensed work" means a work in respect of which a licence is held under this Part.
"Local occupier", in relation to an application made under this Part, means an occupier of land which is wholly or partly situated within the same declared local area as the land on which the work the subject of the application is or is proposed to be situated, but does not include a statutory authority, statutory instrumentality or government department of any State other than the State of New South Wales or a Minister of the Crown for any State other than the State of New South Wales.
"Occupier", in relation to land, means:

(a) the holder of any tenure of the land or, if it is shown that some other person is in actual occupation of the land, that other person,

(b) where the land is a public road within the meaning of the Roads Act 1993 -the council under that Act of the area in which the land is situated, or

(c) where the land is the site of a work to which this Part extends and the work is proposed to be, or is being, constructed on behalf of such a council or is under the care and management of such a council-that council.

"Permit" means a permit issued under Division 3B.
"River" includes:

(a) a stream of water, whether perennial or intermittent, flowing in a natural channel, or in a natural channel artificially improved, or in an artificial channel which has changed the course of the stream,

(b) an affluent, confluent, branch or other stream of water into or from which a stream referred to in paragraph (a) flows, and

(c) anything declared by the Ministerial Corporation by order published in the Gazette to be a river,

but does not include anything declared by the Ministerial Corporation by order published in the Gazette as not being a river and, unless the regulations otherwise provide, does not include those waters of a tidal river that at any time are not capable of being used for irrigation or for watering stock.
"Statutory authority" means a statutory authority, statutory instrumentality or government department of the State of New South Wales and includes a Minister of the Crown for the State of New South Wales.
"Water supply" includes a supply for the carrying on of any industrial operation.
"Work" includes any dam, lock, reservoir, weir, regulator, flume, race, channel (whether an artificial channel or a natural channel artificially improved), any cutting, well, excavation, tunnel, pipe, sewer, and any machinery and appliances.
"Work to which this Part extends" means a work:

(a) which is connected with, or which affects the quantity or use of water in, a river or lake,

(a1) which impounds water and is within an area declared by the Ministerial Corporation by order published in the Gazette to be an area within which a work impounding water is a work to which this Part extends, whether or not it is a work referred to in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c),

(b) which affects the quantity of water flowing in, to or from, or contained in, any such river or lake, or

(c) in or through which flows, or is contained or used, water taken from any such river or lake,

being a work which is used, or is to be used:

(d) for water conservation, irrigation, water supply or drainage, or

(f) for changing the course of a river, or preventing the course of a river from changing,

and includes an existing work or any other work (or class of work) declared by the Ministerial Corporation by order published in the Gazette to be a work to which this Part extends, but does not include:

(g) a work declared under subsection (3) to be a work for urban drainage, or

(h) a work (or class of work) declared by the Ministerial Corporation by order published in the Gazette as being a work to which this Part does not extend.

(2) A reference in this Part to the holders of an authority shall be construed as a reference to the occupiers of the whole of the lands supplied with water obtained by means of a joint water supply scheme in respect of which an authority is in force and, where the supply work or conveying work that is the subject of the scheme is installed or constructed on other land, shall be construed as including a reference to the occupier of that other land, and a reference to a holder of an authority shall be construed as a reference to any one of those holders.

(3) The Ministerial Corporation may, by notice published in the Gazette, declare any work, being a dam, an excavation, a channel (whether an artificial channel or a natural channel artificially improved), a cutting, a tunnel or a pipe, which is constructed in, or forms part of, a river referred to in the definition in subsection (1) of "Work to which this Part extends" to be a work for urban drainage and may, by a similar notice, revoke or amend that notice.

(4) The Ministerial Corporation may, by order published in the Gazette:

(a) declare any area to be a declared local area,

(b) vary or revoke, whether as to the whole or any part, any such order, or

(c) amend the boundaries of any declared local area.

(5) The Ministerial Corporation may, by order published in the Gazette, declare any work that:

(a) is used, or is capable of being used, for the purposes of water supply or water conservation, and

(b) was constructed before 1 January 1999, and

(c) was not, as at that date, a work in respect of which a licence, permit, authority or group licence was in force,

to be an existing work for the purposes of this Part.

(6) An order under subsection (5):

(a) takes effect on the day it is published in the Gazette or such later date as may be specified in the order, and

(b) may declare a work to be an existing work by reference to a specified class or classes of work, to a specified area, or to specified rivers or lakes or sections of rivers or lakes (or to any combination of those matters), and

(c) may make provision for such transitional arrangements as are necessary in relation to the implementation of the order.