With good rain falling across the Bathurst region for the past eight months and Ben Chifley finally starting to fill again, the thoughts of many have naturally turned to if, or when, Bathurst Regional Council might look to ease the Level 5 water restrictions that came into effect last October.

Bathurst's water situation very different to what it was 10 months ago.

When the Level 5 restrictions were introduced, Ben Chifley Dam was around 46 per cent (and falling). Now it is about 57 per cent (and rising).

When Level 5 restrictions came into effect, Bathurst was just heading into the hottest summer on record and the combination of searing heat, a ban on watering lawns and the limit of two days a week for watering gardens (and then only from a watering can or bucket) had a devastating effect on many household gardens.

But, of course, history shows that the decision to impose such strict conditions was entirely the correct one.

The water level at Chifley Dam eventually fell to 28 per cent in mid-February before it finally turned the corner, but the situation would have been even more dire if not for those Level 5 restrictions.

Indeed, it was likely only the introduction of those restrictions that kept Ben Chifley Dam above the critical 22 per cent mark - the point where crippling cease-to-pump rules would be imposed on all irrigators.

Having come so close to the brink, we want to do everything we can as a community to avoid going back there again.

And that means council is right to tread cautiously when it comes to easing restrictions, and the fact is there is little need to ease them at the moment.

The mid-term forecast is for more rain through the remainder of winter and into spring and when the rain is falling there's no need to water the lawn.

So the big question for council will not be when should they ease restrictions, but how far?

Bathurst need never return to the days of no restrictions when people happily watered their lawns in the middle of the day and used a hose instead of a broom to sweep the driveway.

Let the dam fill some more yet before we again open the taps and, when we do, let's use that water more sensibly than we have in the past.