LOBBYING FOR LEGISLATION: AN EXAMINATION OF WATER RIGHTS TRANSITION IN COLONIAL VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA 1840-1886 Edwyna Harris 1 LOBBYING FOR LEGISLATION: AN EXAMINATION OF WATER RIGHTS TRANSITION IN COLONIAL

This paper analyses the transition of water rights institutions in Victoria, Australia, between 1840 and 1886. It will focus on the shift from the common law doctrine of riparian rights to government control of water supplies via quasi-government organisations known as irrigation trusts examining factors leading to this transition and whether it increased institutional efficiency. Evidence suggests transition to government control resulted from two factors. First, the decreasing costs of using government relative to costs of private redefinition because settlement numbers increased thereby increasing scarcity while adding to costs of private investment in redefinition due to higher negotiation and enforcement costs, legal uncertainty, and the inability for private actors to capture the full benefit of a transition. In this way, transition was efficient as it lowered transaction costs associated with creating irrigation schemes to provide water supply security. Second, crisis of drought that increased in magnitude over the period due to changes in dominant farming methods from land extensive grazing to land intensive crop farming. Drought escalated demands, via lobbying, for government action. Combined, these two factors explain why an efficiency enhancing transition from riparian rights to government control took place at this juncture in Victoria's history. Analysis of the historical evolution of property rights to water in Victoria is decidedly absent from both economics and history literature. While a number of authors have made reference to Victoria's historical water institutions, there has been little investigation into how and why these institutions evolved and whether the evolutionary path followed led to the creation of more efficient arrangements over time. 1 This paper aims to fill part of this gap via analysis of the evolution of water rights in Victoria from 1840 to the passing of the 1886 Irrigation Act employing the theoretical framework developed by new institutional economists that provides a basis for examination of property rights transition that can promote natural resource use efficiency while adding to long run economic growth. 2 In this way, this investigation will not only provide a deeper understanding of Victoria's water rights evolutionary path, but also contribute to the wider institutional literature. The period examined saw a transition away from the British common law doctrine of riparian rights to government control of water supplies via quasi-government organisations referred to as irrigation trusts. Evidence suggests the transition to government control was a result of two factors. First, decreasing costs of using government compared with …