![What is this? Tash Maynard wonders as she experiences a light drizzle for the first time in her memory. What is this? Tash Maynard wonders as she experiences a light drizzle for the first time in her memory.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Gh2LLJN5ZAAiRUxkHxKdH7/03408790-f94a-4d4c-a64d-31667a5459d0.jpg/r0_0_720_960_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
A MUM has shared the moment her daughter is baffled by seeing it rain for the first time in Coonabarabran.
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Alisha Rutland and Tash, 2, were on their way out the door for preschool when the little girl froze, fascinated by the spots of water falling from the sky.
“She was very confused,” Miss Rutland said.
The town is on level 6 water restrictions, as Timor Dam sits at 22.8 per cent of capacity and the council instead sources water from the Castlereagh River and from four bores.
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According to the Bureau of Meteorology, the town has recorded just 3.9mm of rain this month, 3.5mm in May and 2.4mm in April.
“It’s a very hot topic in Coonabarabran; it’s always rotating about lack of feed; lack of water; ‘Jesus Christ, we hope it rains soon’; ‘We got a mil’ or – it was a big deal the other day – ‘We got 0.4 of a mil’,” Miss Rutland said.
![Tash Maynard, 2, sees rain for the first time she can remember, after several very dry months in Coonabarabran. Tash Maynard, 2, sees rain for the first time she can remember, after several very dry months in Coonabarabran.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/Gh2LLJN5ZAAiRUxkHxKdH7/91c24e5b-7963-48d7-b1c9-6071bea912fd.jpg/r0_0_2000_884_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
She said it was hard to witness the effect on farmers, even hobby farmers.
“My parents have about 40 brahmans; they’ve been scrimmaging for hay because everywhere local has sold out,” she said.
“They got some hay, we got a little tiny bit of rain, the hay got a bit wet and there was mould in it, and it killed three cows.”
Even as someone who was not on the land herself, she said it effected her outlook.
“I don’t want to take my kids outside to play, because they’re just playing in dust; there’s no grass for them to run around on or anything like that,” she said.
“You look out and see absolutely no feed and starving cattle constantly.
“It’s very sad to see.”