Guidelines for Stormwater Harvesting
Find out the source of your stormwater
The first thing you need to do is determine if the source of your stormwater is from a council owned asset or a Melbourne Water owned asset.
Quick tip:
To determine if the source of your stormwater is from a Melbourne Water or local council asset, please call Dial Before You Dig on 1100, or visit the Dial Before You Dig website.
Contact Melbourne Water or your local council
If the source of your stormwater is a council owned asset you will need to approach your local council for permission to tap into that connection and utilise the stormwater. If you are planning to connect to (and harvest stormwater from) any stormwater drain, watercourse or open channel controlled by Melbourne Water, you will need permission from Melbourne Water.
The source of the stormwater is important to ensure that flows and environmental values are protected.
What types of projects do we support?
Here are some guidelines to help you determine which stormwater harvesting projects Melbourne Water may support:
Decision criteria - sources of stormwater
| Source | In principle support? | |
|---|---|---|
 |
Drain - Council | |
| All council drains | N/A - council decision | |
| Drain - Melbourne Water | ||
| Underground pipe drain | Yes | |
| Constructed channel drain | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
 |
Waterways | |
| Natural waterway | No | |
| Modified waterway | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
 |
Wetlands | |
| Constructed wetland - on waterway | No | |
| Constructed wetland - on drain | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
| Constructed wetland - off line | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
| Natural wetland | No | |
| Constructed wetland within retarding basin | ||
 |
Retarding structure | |
| Retarding basin - on waterway | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
| Retarding basin - on drain | Yes | |
 |
Dams/lakes | |
| Aesthetic dam or lake - on waterway | Further information required for case by case assessment | |
| Aesthetic dam or lake - off waterway or on drain | Yes | |
Note: further information may include hydrological assessment, downstream assessment of receiving water bodies and environmental impact assessment.
Our Guidelines for Stormwater Harvesting (PDF, 328kb) helps to indicate the information you will require to make a pre-application or a formal application. It has been created to help applicants initiate the stormwater process and avoid incurring unnecessary costs by discussing the likelihood of a project being approved and the level of information required.