Water - There's a drought affecting much of New South Wales right now, with both state and federal governments offering assistance to farmers. Here in Casino it hasn't rained for some time. We're on tank water and last weekend we had to order water.
I rang Gary from Casino Water Supply on his mobile and after conducting the pleasantries asked if he could deliver 20,000 litres of water. You see we have two tanks here. One is 5,000 gallons [roughly 20,000 litres] and the other is 3,000 gallons [roughly 12,000 litres]. Here's a transcript of the conversation:
Victor: "Can you bring round 20,000 litres of water?"
Gary: 3,000 litres?
Victor: No, 20,000 litres
Gary: 3,000 litres - it's not worth my time
Victor: 5,000 gallons - 20,000 litres
Gary: Oh 20,000 litres. I thought you said 3,000 litres
Victor: Yeah - I only need to run a bath...
Gary: Right. I thought you said 3,000 litres
It seems that Gary doesn't hear too well on the phone. Gary is a retired police officer from Newcastle who, after becoming incapable or unwilling to continue his chosen career in the Police Force due to stress, sold up and bought a water business including two tanker trucks. One large and one small. I know he doesn't hear to well on the phone 'cause he called back the next day to confirm delivery of the water. Sue answered the phone.
Gary: This is Gary from Casino Water
Sue: Hi Gary
Gary: Who's that?
Sue: It's Sue
Gary: Boo?
Sue [laughing]: No Sue
Gary [puzzled]: Boo?
There's not much money in carting water. The 20,000 litres cost us $110 including the 10 per cent goods and services tax. That's just half a cent a litre. When I was in Sydney our water used to cost us about 0.2 cents per litre. We were a little free with the water in Sydney. Our average daily usage was 745 litres. If we were to continue with the same level of consumption here we'd be using just over a tank a month.
Ouch.
So I did a little plumbing and ran a secondary line from the bore line to the laundry, connecting our mighty Maytag washer to use bore water instead of tank water. My hunch is that the washing machine uses up to 100 litres per load. There are five children here and we'd do about 2 loads of washing a day. So we're looking forward to some significant savings on the water.
I hope I never have to see Gary again. Not because he's not a nice guy - he's a great bloke. But we're praying that it'll rain and the tanks'll fill up regularly from the skies rather than from Gary's truck.
9:28:03 AM 
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