Understanding water access on Cape York
- Cape York NRM
- Jul 10
- 1 min read
Sustainable access to and use of water is essential for agriculture and food production on Cape York Peninsula. If you want to pump water for irrigation, aquaculture, horticulture or other commercial food production activities, you may require a water licence.
More than 90 per cent of the consumptive water available under the Cape York Water Plan is reserved within the Cape York Peninsula Heritage Area Reserve (CYPHA) to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander economic and social development. It can also be made available to non-Indigenous businesses through sublicence agreements.
CYPHA water is allocated to eligible Land Trusts and Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate based on the area of land they have an interest in within the Cape York Water Plan catchments.
Our new fact sheet explains the Water Plan for Cape York, including how businesses, community enterprises and climate-smart food security projects can access water.
Find out more by downloading our Water access on Cape York Peninsula for agricultural and food production enterprises fact sheet.
This project is collaboratively supported by the Australian Government through funding from the Natural Heritage Trust under the Climate-Smart Agriculture Program, and the TNQ Drought Hub Sustainable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Enterprise (SATSIE) project delivered by Cape York NRM.
