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Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams, Victoria

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Publisher Department of Energy, Environment and Climate ActionUpdated monthlyLicence CC BY 4.0Latest 2025-10-30Rows 47,061Fields 3

Stream restrictions from the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, one row per stream and month end from January 2010. The status is the one Goulburn-Murray Water, GWMWater, Melbourne Water and Southern Rural Water applied to licence holders' diversions on the last day of the month under each catchment's local management rules.

Also called: Victorian stream restrictions, Unregulated stream diversion bans Victoria, Stream pumping restrictions and rosters Victoria.

Before you use it
What does each row hold?
The restriction status on taking water from one unregulated stream at the end of one month, from January 2010, such as No restriction, a numbered stage, Restricted or Ban. Water corporations set the stages in each catchment's local management plan, so a stage number means different things on different streams.
Does the status cover the whole month?
No. It is the status on the last day of the month the department recorded, so a change during the month is not shown. The department marks n/a where no status was available, and those cells are null. The status words are kept in the publisher's own spelling and case.
Which water corporation manages each stream?
The workbook's Lookups sheet names the corporation and basin of each stream. It is not part of this table.
47,061stream months
2010 to 2024years drawn
3fields
9formats
1version
05001k1.5k2010: 72820102011: 702012: 24920122013: 7342014: 65620142015: 9132016: 77020162017: 6032018: 95920182019: 1,0212020: 68020202021: 5792022: 35320222023: 3502024: 5572024
Stream-months recorded as Ban per year, 2010 to 2024. Rows where restriction status is Ban are drawn. 2025 is not drawn because the rows run to 22 September 2025. The figure is a count of rows from version 2025-10-30, worked out in the build. Nothing else is added.

Made for agents

Connect your AI agent

Any agent that connects to publicdata.au/mcp can find this dataset, read its 3 fields, count and filter across all 47,061 rows and diff its versions. Every answer names the version and carries DEECA's attribution. No key.

Then ask it: What does Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams, Victoria hold, and what changed in the newest version?

claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp

One command. No key, no account, no sign-up.

Download it as Excel, CSV, JSON and 6 more formats

Pick a format and a version. Excel is picked first because it opens in the tools most offices have. The URL is yours to keep. A dated version keeps its content.

Format
"Latest" redirects to the newest version and will change when the publisher releases again. A dated version keeps its content.
https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/latest/data.xlsx
Download this file

One workbook with a records sheet of 47,061 typed rows, a fields sheet and a publicdata sheet with the provenance. Dates are real Excel dates. Opens in Excel, Numbers, LibreOffice and Sheets.

In your own tools

Use it in Excel, R, Python and more

Excel and Power BI read the CSV from its address and refresh from it. The R and Python packages take any dataset on this site by its slug, so a new dataset needs no new release. The DuckDB file attaches read-only over HTTPS, and a query reads only the blocks it touches.

The dated URL in the code never changes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/latest/ redirects to the newest version.

https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/latest/data.csv

In Excel choose Data, then From Web, and paste this address. Excel keeps it, so Refresh All reads the newest version. A sheet holds about a million rows; past that, load the query to the Data Model.

What is in it

Column names are made snake_case and the publisher's original header is kept beside each one. Blank cells are null. Nothing is added, removed, ranked or summarised.

FieldTypePublisher's headerNote
streamstring(column header 1)
month_enddate(row header 1)The date the status was recorded, the last day of the month or close to it.
statusstring(cell)

Download this table as a data dictionary (Excel), or read it as a Frictionless Table Schema at schema.json. The key is stream, month_end.

A sample of 10 rows

From the latest version, newest first by month end, then in the publisher's order, with every field. A blank cell is shown as null.

streammonth_endstatus
Boosey Creek2025-09-22Ban
Hollands Creek and Ryans Creek2025-09-22No restriction
Lima Creek2025-09-22No restriction
Lima East Creek2025-09-22No restriction
5 Mile Creek2025-09-22No restriction
Axe Creek2025-09-22No restriction
Campaspe River upstream of Eppalock2025-09-22No restriction
Coliban River2025-09-22No restriction
Cornella Creek2025-09-22Ban
Emu Creek2025-09-22No restriction
The first row as JSON

As it appears in data.json.

GET https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/latest/data.json
{
  "stream": "Boosey Creek",
  "month_end": "2010-01-31",
  "status": "Ban"
}

Query it without downloading

The query API returns only the rows you ask for, as JSON, NDJSON or CSV, from the same typed rows as the files. It needs no key. Build a query here and run it, then copy the URL or the code into your own work.

Try rows or aggregate for this dataset. The query builder needs JavaScript.

How filters work

Each filter is field=operator.value in the query string, and every filter must match. A number or date field compares as a number or date, and a text field compares as text. Values are case-sensitive, except that like and ilike ignore case in the ASCII letters A to Z. Prefix not. to negate a filter, as not.eq.value.

OperatorWhat it matches
eq.valueEqual to the value.
neq.valueNot equal to the value. A blank cell does not match.
gt.valueGreater than the value.
gte.valueGreater than or equal to the value.
lt.valueLess than the value.
lte.valueLess than or equal to the value.
like.*text*Matches a pattern where * stands for any run of characters, ignoring case in the ASCII letters A to Z.
ilike.*text*The same as like. Both ignore case in ASCII letters only, so É and é differ.
in.(a,b,c)Equal to any value in the list. A value cannot contain a comma.
is.nullBlank in the source, or suppressed by the publisher.
ParameterWhat it does
selectFields to return, comma-separated. Every field when absent.
orderfield.asc or field.desc, comma-separated. When absent, rows come in the order of the file they are read from. For the newest versions that is the version's own data.parquet, which keeps the publisher's order unless the dataset sorted it. Any other version is read from the Parquet file the answer names in file, and when that file is sorted the answer names its sort in order, which ties follow too.
limitRows per page, 1 to 10,000. 100 when absent.
offsetRows to skip. The next URL in each answer sets it for you.
groupOn aggregate, fields to group by, comma-separated.
metricOn aggregate, count, sum.field, avg.field, min.field or max.field, comma-separated. count when absent.
formatjson, ndjson or csv. JSON carries the provenance header, and the others carry it in response headers.

Without a version the API answers from the newest version, and that answer changes when the publisher releases again. Put versions/<date>/ before rows or aggregate for an answer from that version alone. Every version with a table can be queried, and /api/v1/datasets/<slug>/versions lists them. A query on a version the database does not hold is read from its Parquet file, and one that would read too much of it is refused with DuckDB SQL that answers it from the file. The 1 newest version is loaded; versions lists them.

The API allows 60 requests in 10 seconds from one address. Above that it answers 429 for 10 seconds with a Retry-After header, a RateLimit-Policy header and a JSON body that gives the limit. Every API answer carries the same RateLimit-Policy. A client should wait the Retry-After seconds, or read the files, which have no limit. openapi.json describes this dataset's query paths for client generators and agents.

https://publicdata.au/mcp is a remote MCP server over Streamable HTTP with the same tools, defined in the same place, so a tool added to the pages is added here too. It needs no key and no account. Its row tools and the query API answer every version through one query path, so a tool's answer and the query URL it cites give the same rows. A query that would read too much of a file is refused with DuckDB SQL that answers it from the file. It also has search and fetch, the two tools ChatGPT's deep research and company knowledge call by name, which run search_datasets and read a dataset's record in the shapes those features expect. The row tools are held to the query API's limit of 60 queries in 10 seconds from one address, and each call is two queries because it also counts the matching rows. Add it to Claude Code with claude mcp add --transport http publicdata https://publicdata.au/mcp, add the URL in Claude as a custom connector, or give it to any client that connects to remote MCP servers. Each dataset with a table is also a resource at https://publicdata.au/d/<slug>/fields.json, which lists its fields with their types, the publisher's descriptions, their ranges and the values they hold, so an agent can read a dataset's shape before it writes a query.

What changed

One version for every release the publisher has made since this site started following the dataset. The date is the day the file changed on the portal.

versions.json · changes.json · history.tar.zst (14 KB, every version's Parquet and manifest)

Questions

How do I download Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams as a CSV file?

Open https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/latest/data.csv. It redirects to the newest dated version, which is https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/v/2025-10-30/data.csv today. The same path serves Excel, JSON, Parquet, SQLite, DuckDB, NDJSON, Arrow. A dated URL never changes, so use it when the file must stay the same.

Can I open Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams in Excel?

Yes. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/v/2025-10-30/data.xlsx is a workbook with the 47,061 rows on a records sheet, the field list on a second sheet and the provenance on a third. The CSV also opens in Excel. https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/v/2025-10-30/data.csv.gz is the CSV at about a tenth of the size.

What years does Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams cover?

The current version covers 2010 to 2024. Each release from DEECA becomes a new dated version here, and earlier versions stay online.

How often is Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams updated?

DEECA releases it monthly. This site checks the portal every week and adds a dated version when the file changes.

Can I use Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams commercially?

Yes. CC BY 4.0 allows commercial use, redistribution and derived works as long as the attribution is kept. The attribution string is in this page's side column and inside every file.

Is this the official source for Monthly restrictions on diversions from unregulated streams?

No. The publisher is Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, and its page is https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/stream-restrictions. National Digital converted the publisher's file to other formats. It renamed and typed the columns and kept only those the schema lists. It turned column headers into rows, one row for each value. National Digital made these changes, and the publisher is not responsible for them. The original sits beside every version as source.xlsx with its SHA-256, so the two can be compared.

What this site did to the data. Cells were typed, headers were renamed and the encoding was made UTF-8. Rows were left alone. The publisher's file sits beside every version as source.xlsx so the change can be checked.

Attribution and citation

The licence requires the publisher's attribution. We ask that you also name publicdata.au and link to the version you used.

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victorian Government, Stream restrictions, sourced 3 October 2026, https://discover.data.vic.gov.au/dataset/stream-restrictions, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Serialised and versioned by National Digital at publicdata.au, https://publicdata.au/d/vic-stream-restrictions/v/2025-10-30/

The attribution alone is inside every file. Harvard is the author-date form a report or a brief asks for. Paste the HTML on a web page so the links carry.

Licence record

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action states the licence, CC BY 4.0, on its own page, which was read and recorded here on 1 October 2026.

Every fetch reads the licence again and stops when it has changed. The fetch that made version 2025-10-30 read it from discover.data.vic.gov.au on 3 October 2026.

Also published on
  • Hugging Faceload_dataset("National-Digital/vic-stream-restrictions")
  • Kagglewith a starter notebook
  • ZenodoDOI 10.5281/zenodo.23116350

Each copy carries the same attribution and links back to this page.

For agents and tools

This page carries a schema.org Dataset record and is listed in /.well-known/ard.json and /catalog.json.

Source

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action publishes this table on www.water.vic.gov.au. Questions about the content go to the publisher. Questions about the files here go to corrections.

Fetched 3 October 2026. Source SHA-256 b983e543dd097296…

Improve this dataset

This page is built from register/vic-stream-restrictions.yaml on GitHub. Anyone can propose a fix to it, such as a clearer description or a field the publisher renamed, as a pull request.

Report a file that differs from the publisher's · How to contribute