Digging for drought relief

The four families live on neighbouring properties and found themselves on common ground when it came to a lack of water supplies.

Unreliable shallow bores or dams serviced the four properties, which were quickly running out of the resource for both farm and household use.

While there had been decent rain across parts of the State in the past few months, Impax Group managing director Terry O'Shaughnessy said farmers were still looking for groundwater.

"Farmers are always keen to source a sustainable groundwater supply to serve as an effective water supply and drought buffer for when it inevitably turns dry again," he said.

"Unlike surface water, groundwater can be found in most areas of NSW.

"It is widely distributed and accessible, is of reasonably consistent quality within an aquifer, and is a mappable, predictable resource."

Ron and Anne McMahon, "Mehaul", together with their son Tom and his wife Ange, joined their neighbours and invested in a deep bore to supply the four properties.

The bore is located on the McMahons' 2000-hectare property but also services the properties of Mark and Trish Wilkins, David Phelps, and Jim Constable and Pauline Wilkins - a combined area of more than 6000ha.

The Wilkins family were at a critical level with their quickly diminishing water supply, with only dams supplying their 1820ha property.

Having drastically destocked their beef cattle herd, Mr Wilkins said they were in dire straights.

"We run mainly beef cattle but we've only got a handful of those at the moment - we usually run about 350," he said.

The bore, drilled by Dubbo-based Impax Group, was completed two weeks ago after 12 days work.

It reaches 617 metres deep, tapping into the Great Artesian Basin, and flows at 1.7 million litres a day.

The bore flows with a pressure head of 140 kilopascals and a temperature of 40 degrees Celsius.

Mr O'Shaughnessy said they found a record amount of groundwater at the site.

"There will be a huge improvement in the way the farmers manage their properties and they will see a major improvement in their bottom line profitability," Mr O'Shaughnessy said.

"They've also seen significant lifestyle improvements through the supply of clean water under pressure to the houses and sheds.

"With the properties previously watered only by unreliable shallow bores and dams, they now see an even bigger advantage with an enclosed watering system that will distribute water over all the properties and therefore a better sustainable use of the resources."