Billy wrote:

In a few years, if you want a breath of fresh air, you'll be able to
buy it at a store.

We are hoping for a couple of hundredths of an inch more rain tonight.
Wish us luck.

Here we have a concept related to rainwater called 'harvestable right' . It
means that roughly 10% of the rain that falls on your land is yours to do
with as you wish, the rest must available for the environment or be allowed
to run down to the rivers for others to use. In practice it limits the size
of the dam you can build and the kind of waterway you can build it on. If
for example a permanent river crosses your land you can't dam that.

On top of that if you are on "permanent" fresh water, a river or lake, you
can pump from it (while it runs) without charge for 'bona fide domestic
purposes'. This includes stock watering, human consumption and gardens.
There is no specified limit to this in terms of volume although if you were
taking huge amounts somebody might come around and ask exactly what you are
doing with it. If you were irrigating on a commercial scale or selling it
you would be fined. If you want to irrigate on a commercial scale you have
to buy a water license.

Any attempt by government to take away any of these rights would have dire
consequences at the ballot box, as despite the fact that Oz is very urban
the cities have a romantic attachment to the 'bush' and a well organised
campaign by farmers would gather many votes.

For the small landholder and those running sheep or cattle this is a good
system. As for irrigators it seems they are never happy regardless of
government, policy, rainfall or anything else.

David