Temporary water closures

How to apply for temporary water closure for an aquatic event, works or fireworks displays.

Where a display or event is to be held on or over navigable waters, the waters may need to be temporarily closed to boating and swimming for safety reasons.

When applying to close waters you must demonstrate:

  • why a closed waters area is required for your activity to proceed
  • how you will resource on water management of the closed waters area.

You must submit the application to close waters at least 8 weeks before the closure is required.

This includes any required water closure for the set up, testing and duration of the event or activity.

You can find all current temporary water closures on the temporary notices to mariners page.

  How to apply

To apply for to close waters for an aquatic event, on water works or display you must submit the following at least 8 weeks prior to the date of the water closure:

  • a completed Application to Close Waters form (below).
  • waterway map/chart that clearly shows the activity or event location and the requested closed waters area.
  • Safety Management Plan and risk assessment (if the closed waters area is over a mooring control area or boat harbour, you must include how the risk to those vessels will be mitigated.)
  • vessel traffic management plan (if the closed waters area will impact on the normal flow of vessel traffic)
  • any other required approvals to conduct the activity or event, such as approvals from:
    • Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety
    • Port Authority
    • Marina Management
    • Local Government Authority.

DoT is required to publish notices of closed waters. If your application to close waters is successful, you will need to pay a publication fee.

  Waterway chart or map requirements

Coordinates of the firing point(s) must be provided in degrees and decimal minutes format (DDM), accurate to 3 decimal places.

For example, Latitude 31° 57.842'S, Longitude. 115° 51.203'E as a center point of circular exclusion zones.

If the required exclusion zone is a non-circular shape, please include the coordinates at each point, or change of direction.

An example map is provided below.

Closed water map example
Closed water map example
Page last updated: Tue Jul 4 2023 2:02:16 PM