The Millennium Drought would forever change Australia's relationship to water

Australia Broadcast Center

16-05-2025

Some kids had never seen a puddle until the Millennium Drought broke. The decade-long dry spell sweeping Australia delivered more than cracked earth, it changed our relationship with water.
For most Australians it's second nature to turn the tap off when you're brushing your teeth, or to see two buttons on the toilet — one half, and one full.
But it wasn't always like that.
Not that long ago, Australians used a lot more water. That was, until a critical weather event saw that change.
These graphs show the average yearly water use per household for some of Australia's capital cities over the last two decades.
Notice something?
Each of the cities saw a steep decline in water in the first decade of the century.
Though some have risen in the years since, none have come close to their previous heights.
So what happened?
That dip you see manifests the Millennium Drought, one of the longest recorded droughts in Australian history.
Hard to pin down by dates, it crept through the country like a shadow, leaving behind barren land and devastating farming communities.
But it also transformed Australia's relationship with water, its fingerprints left all over your bathroom, laundry and hardware stores.
The dry spell
The Millennium Drought began its march through the country from Victoria and Tasmania in the late 90s.
Over the next decade it spread through the remainder of the east and the south-west of Western Australia, outside of the tropics, touching nearly all of Australia's population.
There were times of rain, of course. But it was hardly enough.
It meant the really dry times, like 2002 and 2006, were particularly brutal.
"Droughts, they seem to sneak up on you, slowly, it's like a slow burn," Broken Hill farmer Brendan Cullen said.
"You never know how long they're going to last. But with the Millennium Drought — it was a bloody long time."
Mr Cullen was living and working in far western New South Wales as a cattle and sheep farmer — a life he sees as a "massive gift".
But that period was one of the toughest of his life.
"I've got a lot of pictures of dust storms and the like. They're quite spectacular when they roll in, but they're bloody ugly [to experience]. It's like someone's grabbed a shovel and just thrown a heap of dirt everywhere, he said.
He remembers it is a time of "death".
Death of livestock.
Death of trees and grass.
Death of the sounds of birds and animals that fill a healthy landscape.
"I don't like to talk about it in a way that, that's what it's all about. But the reality is just sheer hardships and struggles," he said.
Regional Australians were hit hardest by the drought. Their livelihoods depend on water.
Many farmers were facing financial ruin and had to decide to completely give up, go bankrupt or sell what they could to get through.
But the drought wasn't only affecting regional Australia.
SINGLE USE A boy with a soccer ball at the fence of a sports oval in Chewton, Victoria. The fence carries a sign saying 'Water restrictions in use, do not drink'. ( Supplied: Julie Millowick )
As it dragged on, major capitals — home to millions of people — began facing critical water shortages too.
"You just see the world sort of deteriorate in front of your very eyes. It's soul destroying," said Margaret Cook who lived in Ipswich, south-west of Brisbane.
She's an environmental historian who not only experienced the Millennium Drought but studied it.
"My favourite, favourite sound is rain on a tin roof. And I didn't hear that for years," she remembers.
"And my favourite smell is rain on a hot day when it hits the grass. We didn't mow for six years. It just became a dust bowl."
Water mania
Australian households were facing the terrifying reality that there might not be enough water to drink. Soon a mania about water use began.
"It sort of became the national obsession. We were all talking about would it rain, if there was a cloud in the sky we'd get hopeful. We were obsessed with the chance of rain," Dr Cook said.
Governments were doing everything they could to rally Australians together with a common goal — use less water.
Households received 4-minute egg timers for their showers.
Advertising campaigns — like "Target 155" in Melbourne — started to become regular on TV and radio, encouraging people to reduce their water use to 155 litres a person, a day.
People were even being encouraged to dob in their neighbour if they were doing the wrong thing. Anyone with a green lawn was under suspicion.
"It became a sort of competition or a badge of honour to try and use as little water as you could," Dr Cook said.
A man is sitting on a front porch in Castlemaine, Victoriawith a watering can and a sign saying 'Tank water in use'. ( Supplied: Julie Millowick )
Water restrictions became extremely severe.
At the peak of the drought, some cities and towns, including Brisbane, Toowomba and Goulburn, were completely banned from outdoor water use and had to ration indoor use.
Other towns relied on carting water to meet their essential needs.
"We were only allowed to use our sprinkler every second day, and then we weren't allowed to use sprinklers at all, then we weren't allowed to use hose," Dr Cook said of the water restrictions in Queensland.
"And then we were only allowed to use buckets of water if it came out of our dirty water from the showers."
All of these measures caused a dramatic drop in household water use.
By 2011, Melbourne households were using nearly half of the water that they did at the start of the drought. Brisbane even less.
"We as a society are so lucky that we turn on a tap and seemingly endless water just comes out. And it never dawns on us that one day it might not come out of the tap," Dr Cook said.
Of course, droughts aren't linear events.
Some capitals, like Darwin and Perth, didn't see the same rapid drop in water as others — protected by infrastructure like desalination in the west, and above average rainfall in the north.
The day the rain came back
By about 2010, the rains returned, and water restrictions eased.
It wasn't in one dramatic downpour, more a series of rainfall events, one by one, returning life to the landscape, bringing back confidence.
Dr Cook remembers hearing rain on her tin roof for the first time in years.
"We all went and sat on our front steps cause we were so excited. And the smell, the smell of rain is just magic when you haven't seen for that long," she said.
"The kids were just running and jumping and laughing and having the best time. It was probably the best day of their childhood because none of them had seen [a puddle].
"They had all been born in this drought."
In western New South Wales, Mr Cullen's world came alive once again.
"I still remember to this day when that drought broke. The amount of water that just was everywhere, and how the country responded, was unbelievable," he said.
"All your native species come back. Our sandhills were covered in marsupial mouse tracks, and the birdlife was extraordinary, the creeks were filled with yabbies."
A lasting change
Gone are the days of 4-minute showers. People are washing their cars on the driveway again, and using sprinklers on their lawn.
But even with that "obsession" in the past, our lavish water use has not returned.
In Brisbane, for example, the city reached its lowest water use in 2008.
After that, water use began to gently rise again.
But it is still not close to what it was before the drought.
A similar pattern can be seen in other capitals.
Water experts say it is hard to pin this plateau to any one thing.
Housing density, for example, has increased in the years since, meaning there are fewer gardens to water.
But Dr Cook says the permanent changes brought about during the Millennium Drought undoubtedly played a role.
Government incentives to install more water-efficient appliances became permanent fixtures of our households.
The Australian invention of the dual flush toilet, for example, is now a staple in bathrooms — something that was not the case before the drought.
The same can be said for water-efficient shower heads and taps.
Even the star ratings that you see on dishwashers and washing machines were born from drought.
"So every household, without having to do anything, without even having to think about drought, is actually using less water by virtue of the appliances we have in our houses," Dr Cook said.
While Australia has embraced its water-efficient appliances, US President Donald Trump recently signed an order aimed at reversing efficiency and water conservation measures like shower heads in his country.
Beyond the home, the drought also saw investments in major infrastructure, and changes to the water use in agriculture and industry.
The Murray Darling Basin Plan, for instance, came about in response to the drought. Recycled water also became more common practice in farming and industry too — with coal stations now using it instead of drinking water.
And, what shouldn't be forgotten according to Dr Cook, is the psychological change that impacted Australians.
"I think for governments and individuals who have lived through the drought, it will never be the same again. I don't have such long showers; I turn off the tap when I'm cleaning my teeth.
"But the challenge, I think, is we have to keep that alive."
Future water use
Of all Earth's continents, only Antarctica gets less rain than Australia.
Added to that is the pressure of population growth and climate change, which makes the way we value water even more pertinent.
It's with this in mind that Dr Cook and other experts say building on the lessons learnt will be vital for when, not if, drought comes back again.
"We did make some amazing changes in the Millennium Drought. I don't want to have to wait for the next severe drought to have to do that again, I'd like to do it now."
It's no doubt front of mind in South Australia and Victoria, which have been experiencing severe drought conditions for 16 months.
After his own battles, Brendan Cullen is now heavily involved with mental health support survices in rural New South Wales ( Supplied: Brendan Cullen )
Mr Cullen will never forget the drought as one of the toughest times of his life. But the way Australia pulled together to get through it left him with a sense of hope.
"The Aussie spirit never leaves you. We're driven by hardships and having to work through really tough periods, and finding a resolve there can keep you forging forwards. And you hope, as time goes by you can share that information and get people to recognise and understand what it's like to live through that."
Notes on data:
Household water use means the average volume of residential water supplied per property by financial year.
All water data was sourced from the Urban National Performance Report, produced by the Bureau of Meteorology. Additional data was also provided by Urban Utilities. Utilities were chosen based on the number of connected properties and the geographical area they serviced.
Sydney: Sydney Water Corporation
Adelaide: South Australian Water Corporation — Adelaide
Brisbane: Urban Utilities