Faced with level five restrictions, a leak in the village's only reservoir and now a boil water alert, Bundarra residents are concerned for the future.
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Christine Edwards, who has called Bundarra home for 19 years, said the township has been struggling with water-related issues for the past 12 months.
With a population of around 400, Bundarra's main water supply Taylors Pond has been estimated to run dry in less than 140 days by Uralla Shire Council.
"We need a town bore urgently, we are at crisis level. Our Gwydir River is a dry riverbed with tiny puddles, I'd challenge anyone to view the river from Lone Pine Bridge, it's all rocks as far as the eye can see," she said.
Disappointed with Uralla Shire Council's lack of community consultation, Christine said local council workers were doing all they could. She strongly felt Council were neglecting to act on Bundarra's water issues.
"We haven't even had a town meeting or been told what the action plan is. You hear things by word of mouth or on the internet, but we've had no council representation come out here," she said.
With bushfires raging through the country, a lack of water available to aircraft bombers as a firefighting resource was another concern Christine raised.
After leaving on holidays for a week in December, the resident returned to Bundarra shocked to see how much drier it had become.
"We also need a new water reservoir. We only have one which is severely compromised with leakage. Recently we saw Cooma's reservoir collapse but luckily for them, they had two. Bundarra has one. If it goes, we have no way of treating water.
"Also, the water we are losing from the leak is water we've paid to be treated. But we can't even drink our treated water at the moment because of elevated levels of turbidity. What can we expect when we source water from creeks where livestock wander and poo?"
Bottled water is available to Bundarra residents, although Christine shared concerns of many elderly residents living in the village having to boil water.
The tight-knit village has always been resilient, and not one to whinge, but when a vital resource becomes increasingly low it causes some angst.
"It's sad, our country needs little towns like Bundarra to survive. I've travelled around my whole life but I regards Bundarra as my community. You have friends and a life here but water is a big issue," she said.
