With a population of 25,000 and just a year's supply left in its dam, water is a finite resource in the parched New England town of Armidale.
So when a Sydney council offered to truck 1.3 million litres of pool water to the town, Mayor Simon Murray could not say no.
"We've got a year's supply left … and we've been on level five water restrictions for some months now.
"Our water supply which comes from a dam [that] is in the low 30 per cent and decreasing and we're on days to zero."
About 500 kilometres to the south, the Lane Cove Council is building a new aquatic centre.
With the concrete poured, engineers need to check whether there are any leaks — requiring them to fill it with water.
Lane Cove Mayor Pam Palmer told ABC Radio Sydney's Sarah MacDonald that the council did not want to see the water go to waste.
"When they told us they had to fill it and then just pull the plug we couldn't see it happen."
In an effort to help their country cousins, the council has decided to save the water and raise funds to truck it to Armidale.
"We're going to send it to Armidale, who are in desperate need of water," she said.
The council expected the cost of the transport would be about $100,000 and it has set up a website to raise funds.
While the water would not be suitable for human consumption, Armidale's Mayor Cr Murray said the donation would be used to fight fires and water the brown, parched sporting fields.
"The RFS have got an air base here which looks [after towns from] the Queensland border to Tamworth … that's a 300-odd-kilometre distance that we supply aircraft to counter bushfires, so a part of the water will go to that."
He said directing some of the water to sporting fields was important too.
"To get away from thinking about the drought … allowing people to play cricket on a pitch that's been watered … how do you put a measure on the mental state they will feel afterwards?"
Cr Palmer said she expected the shipment of water to arrive in Armidale by early next year.
