Badger Bates' eyes fill with tears when he pulls up at the Menindee Lakes lookout.

These watering holes were once vast, and deep — a vital oasis for the local community and their livestock.

Now, the only sign of life is a handful of weary cattle, standing in the dust.

For Badger, a Barkindji elder, it's a devastating scene.

His people have lived on the Darling River, or "Barka", for more than 40,000 years.

"For me, you take the water out of the Barka and I'm not even black, I'm nothing, I'm just lost," he says.

The Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) ordered the Menindee Lakes be drained in 2014 and 2017 in a bid to meet water demands downstream.

It was a decision that outraged locals, who say their anger has been vindicated now the lakes are dry and New South Wales is in the midst of a crippling drought.

"Now without water, both the black and white people in town are walking around like zombies," Badger says.

A dead kangaroo tells the dire drought story in Menindee. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

Menindee, population 500, is about an hour's drive from Broken Hill in far west NSW.

It is not used to being the centre of attention.

But after a mass fish kill earlier this month, when up to a million fish including iconic species like perch and Murray River cod perished, it has been thrust into the national spotlight.

The fish suffocated after a blue green algal bloom, which robbed the water in the Darling River of oxygen.

Exactly who's to blame for the ecological disaster depends on who you talk to.

But one thing is certain — the town's cries for help came long before this month.

"We have been trying to get our story out to the rest of the nation for some time ... it's sad it took such a catastrophe but we have to make the most of what we can," local man Graham McCrabb says.

Now the fish are dead, people here fear their town could be next.

Up to one million fish are estimated to have died after the algal bloom. ( Facebook: Debbie Newitt )

'It's depressing'

Richard Unsworth remembers when Menindee used to "hum".

He managed a large table grape farm here, but the water is gone.

Now, all that's left are hundreds of rusting trellises.

Mr Unsworth employed about 200 pickers at peak times, but like much of the town's horticultural industry, that seems a distant memory.

"The insecurity of the flows down the Darling and the security of holding water in the Menindee Lakes system certainly contributed to this industry closing down," he says.

"Yeah, it's depressing."

Richard Unsworth was a big employer in the region, until his farm closed in 2015. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

The idea Menindee might run out of water all together is now a major concern for people here.

Since the algal bloom, pumping water from the Darling River is no longer an option.

The Menindee Lakes have only 3 per cent water in them — and the little that's left stinks.

Some people in the town have complained when they turn their taps on, what comes out is a chocolatey brown.

"You would expect to have a nice clean shower and brush your teeth in this water and not be forced to rewash your laundry over and over again to get dirty water stains out," says local motel owner Darryl Cowie.

"When the river is healthy we didn't seem to have this."

A Facebook post by Menindee woman Taya Biggs showing deep brown water she claims came from her tap has been shared almost 3,000 times.

The town's supplier Essential Water has defended the quality of the water, saying it complied with national guidelines and that complaints were "isolated" incidents.

The lack of water is even more pronounced because the town regularly sweats through days of more than 40 degrees Celsius in summer.

After the mercury reached 47C for four consecutive days last week, the Bureau of Meteorology's thermometer at the local post office broke.

Legendary explorers Burke and Wills helped put Menindee on the map. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

'You could just cry'

Politicians and water officials have descended on Menindee since the mass fish kill.

NSW Regional Water Minister Niall Blair dropped in on January 7, but the closest most people got to him was when he sped past on a boat — something people in the town say left them "pissed".

The NSW Government has blamed the state's crippling drought, rather than poor water management, for the fish kill.

People in Menindee do not deny the role drought has played in their town's predicament.

But locals argue that while no-one can open the heavens, people can open their ears.

Sharon Bonselaar used to swim in the river with her family but says it's "putrid" now. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

"The Murray Darling Basin Authority should actually talk to locals and Aboriginal people that live on the river," Sharon Bonselaar, a fourth-generation farmer in the area, says.

"They might learn what happens here."

Her family built Windalle Station in the 1800s along the Darling River for water security.

"It used to be pristine, a beautiful clear blue, now it's a cesspit ... sometimes it's like someone has spilt oil all over the top of the water.

"You go down and you could just cry."

One of the main arguments used to justify releasing water from the Menindee Lakes was that it would evaporate if it was left there.

"Don't anyone try to tell me or my people or the rest of the people that these lakes evaporate ... we have known them for thousands of years before," Badger says.

Rotting fish have become a common sight in the outback town. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

Water is everything

The area's waterways have, historically, been a tourism drawcard.

But the people that used to camp on the banks of the Darling River have no reason to come right now.

Frail kangaroos line the main road into town — so weak they can barely look up at passing cars.

Debbie Gregory, the secretary for the Menindee Tourism Association, believes the ecological disaster could force the town to branch out.

"People are frustrated and I get that, I really do, but if we don't do something [for tourism] outside of water, to try and get people here, this town will die," she says.

Debbie is using the mass fish kill limelight to push for initiatives to get visitors back to the town where legendary explorers Burke and Wills once camped.

They want more roads in the area sealed, a national campaign to promote the lakes as a holiday destination, money for a full-time tourism officer and much-needed improvements to mobile phone signal.

But for now in Menindee, water is everything.

Menindee's dusty main drag has seen busier days. ( ABC News: Paige Cockburn )

Residents of the town are trying to preserve the businesses that are left — including two pubs, a hairdresser, chemist, supermarket and two takeaway shops.

The supermarket has had a "For Sale" sign out the front for the past five years.

"Who wants to buy into a town where there is no water security?" Debbie says.

At the pub, water policy dominates the conversation where people concur the Murray Darling Basin Plan is "not worth the paper it's written on".

Locals joke that the emaciated kangaroos and thousands of floating dead fish are "not the greatest" tourism campaign.

Darryl asks bartender Donna when it's next forecast to rain.

Her response is as poignant as it is vague.

"Someday."