According to the Landmark Mills, Finley, the agent offering up the entitlements, the water will be sold as a single parcel or in the largest lots possible.

The permanent water entitlements are presently owned by 100 irrigator members of Murray Irrigation and represent about 3pc of the water managed by the organisation.

Agent acting for Murray Irrigation, Gil Silby, said he was not aware of a water sale of this magnitude before and the development was very much a sign of the times.

"This offering comes about because a number of factors, after years of drought some people need the money urgently and others are making this decision from a purely business point of view," Mr Silby said.

"They are looking to sell their water entitlement and buy some more dry land and there is a surprising number of those people around."

Various private and government interests have already shown interest in the sale and Mr Silby said the sale would probably take about three to four weeks.

"The federal government has been in the water market for a couple of years and has signalled it is likely to be there for some time yet, as have state governments.

"There have also been some keen businessmen, merchant bankers who have been keeping their eyes on water because it is a scarce commodity and some superannuation funds as well so we are not relying on one possible buyer here."

Murray Irrigation general manager Anthony Couroupis said the company was acting after broad shareholder support, with its irrigator members wanting to enter into the water market in this fashion.

"Murray Irrigation is using, to best advantage, its position as Australia's largest private bulk water licence holder, and the largest private irrigation company in the country, to offer them this opportunity to realise an appropriate return on the sale of their water entitlements," Mr Couroupis said.