After years of counting every drop, residents of the Yass Valley in NSW have had their water restrictions lifted.

Eight years of short showers and dusty cars are over for residents, with reports the local Yass Valley dam has been boosted by recent rainfall to an acceptable level.

The change means there will be no limits to water use anywhere except the town of Murrumbateman, which is not connected to local mains. Residents everywhere else can enjoy open access to water as long as it does not create run-off or pooling.

Yass Valley general manager David Rowe said: “It's a combination of completing construction and the recent rainfall... it is a small dam, it doesn't take much rain fall to actually fill it... we had to actually physically lower the dam wall to allow completion of the construction.”

Mr Rowe also said there had been a marked improvement in the water-wise practices of Yass residents over the duration of restrictions, but says the community can be liberal with its water for the immediate future; “unless we get very long extended dry-periods, water restrictions would be fairly unlikely, but like anything you can't predict the future in terms of rainfall,” he said.