Water bill discount for eligible South East Queensland households

The Queensland Government encouraged South East Queensland (SEQ) households to make the most of high water supply levels leading into this year’s wet season by providing a one-off discount on their water bills.

You will get a $55 discount on your water bill if you are a household connected to the SEQ water grid, and you are directly billed for your water by:

• Urban Utilities, serving the local government areas of
  • Brisbane City Council
  • Ipswich City Council
  • Lockyer Valley Regional Council
  • Somerset Regional Council
  • Scenic Rim Regional Council
• Unitywater, serving the local government areas of
  • Moreton Bay Regional Council
  • Sunshine Coast Regional Council
  • Noosa Shire Council
• Redland City Council
• Logan City Council
• City of Gold Coast

If you don’t get a water bill from one of these 5 SEQ water service providers, or pay them directly for your water use, you will not receive the discount.

Some communities in these areas are not connected to the SEQ Water Grid, and they will not get the discount.

Find out more about eligibility.

For most areas in SE Queensland the $55 discount is equivalent to around 13.2 kilolitres (13,200 litres) of household water use for a two-week period. This usage is about double the amount of water used by an average household over two weeks.

It’s important to remember that all households use different amounts of water, if your usage is higher than this amount, this doesn’t mean all your water will be discounted for the two weeks.

How the discount works

Will I get the discount if I don’t use extra water?

Yes. Every eligible household will automatically receive a $55 discount on a future bill.

Eligible households do not need to use the water to get the discount, they can continue to use the water as they would normally do and still receive the discount.

What if I use more than $55 of water?

Each eligible household will get the $55 discount whether they use extra water or not. Any water you use over this amount will be billed as usual.

What do I need to do to get the discount?

Nothing, the $55 discount will be applied to eligible SEQ household water bills by their water service provider.

When will I get my discount?

The 5 SEQ water service providers are administering the $55 discount to eligible households. When an individual household receives their discount will depend on their individual billing cycle and service provider processes. Eligible households will receive the discount before March 2023.

Release of water from Wivenhoe Dam

This initiative coincides with the temporary full supply level release for Wivenhoe Dam.

Following expert advice from the Bureau of Meteorology, dam safety engineers and leading scientists, the Minister for Regional Development and Manufacturing and Minister for Water directed Seqwater to lower Wivenhoe Dam to 80 per cent capacity in response to the Bureau of Meteorology’s declaration of a La Nina for the 2022-2023 wet season.

Seqwater conducted a controlled release of water from Wivenhoe Dam from 15-27 October 2022.

Do I need to use more water to lower the levels in Wivenhoe Dam?

No. Seqwater conducted a controlled release of water from the dam on 15-27 October 2022.

SEQ households should continue to adopt a waterwise mentality when making the most of this discounted water opportunity, either by pocketing the discount as a reward for doing their bit for water security or by putting additional water towards things like washing driveways, gurneying houses and flushing out gutters, around the home.

Learn more about how Seqwater manages Wivenhoe Dam.