Water is running out for a town at the centre of Australia’s early mining boom. 

In the late 1800s, the Queensland town of Mount Morgan hosted a gold rush, digging up some of the fortune that found the company BP. 

But now, the Rockhampton council is spending thousands of dollars a day to truck water to Mount Morgan. 

The town’s water supply, known as No 7 dam, is sitting at around 8 per cent capacity, leaving Mount Morgan on level 6 restrictions.

But locals say their tap water tastes like dirt, children do not want to drink or bathe in it, and even the local cafe has had to plumb bottled water into its coffee machine to get around the foul taste. 

Mount Morgan Promotion and Development Inc president John Steinberger said the water crisis has been going on for decades.

“It restricts development; it restricts industry growth,” he said.

“We're pretty resilient up here but it's still not good to be pushed to the limit where we're constantly trying to conserve water.

“You walk along Quay street [in Rockhampton] and you see all of those magnificent buildings that were built on Mount Morgan's gold.

“We are part of Rockhampton regional [council] and all we want I suppose is … a permanent water supply.”

But no quick fix is in sight, with Rockhampton Councillor Donna Kirkland says council is working on long-term action plans.

It is looking at options including repurposing raw water and building a pipeline from nearby Gracemere. These ideas do not come with a definite timeline. 

“We need to do feasibility studies and peer test all of those taking on board the sentiment of the community,” she told the ABC.

Cr Kirkland said council is looking to the state to fund more water trucking. Water deliveries are set to increase to 20 trucks each day from next week.

“There has, of course, been that precedence set by the state supporting trucking water to Stanthorpe for 18 months or so,” she said.

“They were trucking 25 to 30 trucks a day so where we are positioned right now, given that precedent, would set us in good stead hopefully to secure the same.”