A delegation of Barraba residents led by Community Development Committee president and former Wallaby Bill McKid and the committee’s treasurer John Bishton made the almost 200km round trip by bus and car to Tamworth to throw their support behind Cr Shirley Close’s alternative amendment that the council re-confirm its support of the pipeline.

Mr McKid, who addressed the council meeting during the community consultation session, said there were a large number of concerned residents in the town “bitterly opposed” to a recommendation from council’s water enterprises department to not proceed with the Split Rock Dam pipeline option as a raw water source.

He said the pipeline had been a hot topic back in 1995 when a projected cost of $3.6m was considered excessive and it had divided the community at the time.

However, Mr McKid said, it had been recognised the pipeline – while now even more expensive – was the best option for a guaranteed supply. He said investigations into underground supplies – the preferred option of the NSW Government – had been fruitless because these could not guarantee a permanent supply.

The development committee’s treasurer John Bishton, who runs the local supermarket also spoke and said the town was trying to grow but without a certain supply of water it would not flourish.

Mr Bishton said Australian Bureau of Statistics data from 2001 to 2006 had shown the population in the post code had grown by 30 or 40 people – contrary to the council report and would grow even more if water was added to the mix.

He said a number of former residents from the Central Coast and the Sunshine Coast had chosen to make Barraba their new home because the town had good services and facilities.

“With the exception of a good water supply it is a cheap and economical place to live,” he said.