Ep 224: Kim Morison - The Ultimate Uncorrelated Asset - Water

Ep 224: Kim Morison - The Ultimate Uncorrelated Asset - Water

From Inside the Rope with David Clark by David Clark

June 8, 2026 · 43 min

About this episode

David Clark interviews Kim Morison about the investment potential of water rights in Australia amidst changing climate conditions.

How do you secure resilient, institutional-grade returns when traditional equity and bond markets are increasingly volatile? The answer might lie in the driest inhabited continent on Earth. In this episode, we sit down with Kim Morison , Managing Director of Argyle Water , a pioneer in channeling capital into the Australian agricultural sector. After a three-year period of flat performance driven by unprecedented, back-to-back wet seasons, the macroeconomic and climatic levers governing the $600 million water rights market are shifting violently. For sophisticated investors holding endowment-style portfolios, water rights present a highly uncorrelated asset class. It bypasses traditional operational hazards, like plagues or localized crop failure, and isolates two powerful drivers of alpha: structural capital demand from high-value permanent crops (such as almonds and citrus) and the brutal reality of Australian climate cycles. We dive deep into the mechanics of the current market, exploring how the impending El Niño pattern is drawing down dams from 100% capacity to 40% in just two years, rapidly escalating spot prices from $100 to nearly $400 per megalitre. We also break down…

People in this episode

Host: David Clark

Guest: Kim Morison

Topics covered

  • water rights
  • investment strategies
  • Australian agriculture
  • climate impact
  • market volatility

Keywords

  • water rights
  • investment
  • Australia
  • agriculture
  • El Niño
  • market volatility
  • climate cycles

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Argyle Water

Places: Australia, Australian agricultural sector

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