BARRING a couple of weeks of downpours of the tropical Darwin variety, Bathurst is set to move to extreme level water restrictions by the middle of next month.
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This city's situation is nowhere near as dire as some towns and cities in the state's north and west, yet it will still be a wrench for locals as they are told to turn the tap off a little more from October 14.
This is a city that went without water restrictions for more than 20 years up until 2018; where Chifley Dam always seemed to replenish before drastic action had to be taken.
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The days of water from sprinklers twinkling in the midday sun are long gone now, though - and that's not a bad thing.
When you think of a resource as being unlimited, you don't tend to appreciate it. And when you are told you can have as much as you want of something, you don't tend to place much value on it.
But as restrictions tighten in Bathurst, locals appear to be looking afresh at their water and how it is being used. And that's what scarcity tends to do - it focuses the mind.
This drought will eventually break and restrictions will eventually ease, but the city will be changed from this dry period.
If new mayor Bobby Bourke - who has nominated water security as one of his top priorities - has his way, the city will be changed physically, through stormwater harvesting or a pipeline from Chifley Dam to reduce evaporation.
But there is also likely to be a change in locals' thinking.
A city where water was abundant for so long has, over the past 12 months, been forced to treat this resource as limited - and, from October 14, will be forced to treat it as even more limited again.
That's unlikely to be immediately forgotten as the Macquarie floods some time in the future.
