In Coonabarabran, it’s not uncommon to see a washing machine sitting on a front lawn mid-cycle.

Residents of the central NSW town have taken to using the ingenious method of watering their front lawns without wasting a drop of precious water.

With the area in the grip of the worst drought its seen in decades, the Warrumbungle Shire Council took the unprecedented action in April of raising water restrictions in Coonabarabran to level 6, the highest possible step.

This means the town’s 3000 residents are unable to wash their cars, clean their windows, or water their gardens with anything other than recycled water.

While South Africa’s Cape Town made international headlines earlier this year when the city’s deputy mayor announced ground zero - the day it would run out of water - Coonabarabran has been quietly facing its own critical water shortage.

READ MORE: Farming family stops buying groceries to keep livestock alive

The small Timor Dam, which supplies the town with its water, last week fell below 23 percent capacity.

In the next month or two the dam level is expected to fall below 20 percent, and a lack of gravity will mean it can no longer operate without the use of a pump.

Coonabarabran was drought declared by the NSW Department of Primary Industries six months ago. (Supplied)

Warrumbungle Shire Council Mayor Peter Shinton told nine.com.au an unknown percentage of water at the bottom of the dam was also expected to be unusable.

“With the water that’s been at the bottom of the dam, you’ve had organics washing in and it goes rotten. So, some of that water, and I don’t know how many percent, will be untreatable,” he said.

“Right now we are not using dam water at all. We are taking water out of the river, and from the four existing bores that are pretty low suppliers.”

Seven emergency bores are also in the process of being dug and tested after the NSW government put $1m in funding towards the critical works.

The first of the emergency bores is expected to be up and running by the end of next week and would help augment the town’s water supply, Cr Shinton said.

Cr Shinton, who lives outside Coonabarabran on a cattle and sheep property, said the area was the driest he had seen it since he moved there in the 1970s.

“We went through the drought in the early 80s and that was another one that hit really hard, but at least then we had water. There was no feed but I don’t think anyone ran out of water in those days. When you have no feed and no water it becomes quite critical.”

Harry Taylor, pictured on his family's property near Coonabarabran, made a wish for rain for his 6th birthday earlier this month. (Photo: Jess Taylor)

Coonabarabran resident Sue Sovic, 60, said the streets in town had become little more than brown patches of dirt over the past few months.

“It’s really been tough. I have a 22-year-old autistic boy and he wants all home-grown vegetables and I’m trying to grow things and I can’t water them,” she said.

However, people were rallying together and going to extraordinary lengths to save water, she said.

“I have seen people who have their washing machines out in their front yard. And it’s all hooked up, they are doing their washing. And then the water is coming directly from the machine onto the grass.

“There are also people who are standing over buckets in the shower and whatever they can save in a bucket they have been taking it outside.”

People were also taking advantage of free bore water being offered at one of the shops in town and filling up big plastic containers to take home, Ms Sovic said.

The Timor Dam, which supplies Coonabarabran with its water, pictured back in 2016 when the water level was higher. (Photo: Warrumbungle Shire Council)

While tough, the town’s residents are unlikely to have any relief from the stringent water restrictions soon, Cr Shinton said.

“We will be on level 6 water restrictions until the dam comes back to 50 percent full,” he said.

“It’s been tough on everybody. I wouldn’t shy away from that. But at least they can still turn on the tap,” he said, adding that the region’s farmers were facing an even bleaker situation than those in town.

Farmers were having to cart water out of the river in town, or even have it delivered from more than 40kms away at a cost of $200 per load, he said.

BOY MAKES BIRTHDAY WISH FOR RAIN

Jess Taylor runs a sheep and cattle property with her third-generation farming husband in Bugaldie, 25km from Coonabarabran.

The mother-of-four agreed the current drought was the worst the area had seen in decades.

“All the other droughts there was still a bit of water. This is the struggle now, there is just no water,” she said.

“We have a lot of wells, but they are dry because the creek hasn’t run since 2016.”

Ms Taylor said she and her husband had already been forced to sell off a lot of stock because they couldn’t afford to feed them.

“I don’t know how long we can sustain keeping the animals in good health, with the prices of feed,” she said.

“We just spent $10,000 on a load of cotton feed, which is probably going to last us five weeks. It’s just unsustainable.”

The Taylor family's treehouse, with a patch of fake grass to add some greenery to the dusty scene. (Photo: Jess Taylor) (Supplied)

Ms Taylor said when she asked her son Harry a few weeks ago what he would like for his birthday, his response was: "Just rain please mum."

“It was hard to hear. He just sees that we are doing it tough, everyone is doing it tough,” she said.

“It’s (my children’s) world and it’s not fair on them really. They shouldn’t have to go through this.

“I’ve got the two little ones at home because they are not at school yet. They are spending from 8am in the morning until lunchtime in the car everyday while I’m going around feeding.

“My husband is doing shearing off the farm for some income. So it’s all up to me.”

Cr Shinton said people in the city and the federal government were out of touch with the plight of Australian farmers.

The mayor said he had caught up with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Trangie last week during his tour of drought stricken NSW and Queensland.

“The prime minister was saying there was a $20,000 loan farmers could get that you didn’t have to pay off for seven years, and I said to him, ‘Prime minister, the average feed bill here is $16,000 a month to keep your stock alive. $20,000 is only going to supply one month of feed. It’s just not good enough for those farmers that are keeping their breeding stock alive.’”