IF you live on the land, chances are you've heard of a legendary water diviner from Nundle, who has an uncanny ability to locate where the precious resource flows deep underground.
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Ivan Inman has been finding water where no one else can since he was a kid, learning from his father, who also had "the gift".
And while the 89-year-old can't explain how he can do it - and neither can the science - there are bore drillers who trust his judgment so much, they refuse to use anyone else.
"It's just something I'm lucky enough to be able to do," Ivan said.
"If I can help people, then I help them."
When The Leader asked Mr Inman, who isn't one to blow his own horn, if he was good as the legends said he was, he replied: "Apparently I am, otherwise people wouldn't get me."
"I'm getting three or four requests a day," he said.
"People ask me why I don't advertise. I tell them I'm already getting more work than I can do now. I've got about 40 jobs on the books right now."
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Equipped with his "high-tech scientific equipment" - two L-shaped metal rods - Mr Inman has divined water in every state across the country bar Western Australia.
His son Jeff Inman, who jokes he "couldn't even find the Pacific Ocean", has been watching his more talented father find water on farms for decades.
"He's the real deal - let's just say his misses are few and far between," he said.
"He's got a gift, and it's not something you can learn."
He said his father had one rule for anyone using his services: "Where he puts the peg, that's where you drill."
"That's the exact spot - not a foot either side, not over where the tree is because it's shady - right where the peg is," he said.
"He puts it in the centre of the steam. If he can, he'll find a double stream, where two water streams cross over."
With the ongoing drought, people have been after this special talent now more than ever, as their usual sources of water dry up.
"I'm off to Mungindi just over the Queensland border next week," the senior Mr Inman said.
"They've been waiting for me for a couple of months."
The younger Inman said the sad part was his dad was only one person.
"We hear these sort of stories every day. We were out at Timor yesterday, and this poor fella has run out of water completely, he has only a little puddle left," he said.
"Hopefully, Dad's found him some more."
Jamieson Murphy
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Newcastle Herald news director. Interested in any and all yarns. Whisper g'day mate to me at jamieson.murphy@austcommunitymedia.com.au
