It would be nice to think that there was some biblical moment when the heavens opened and the rains refreshed the land and there was rejoicing.
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But talk to farmers about the end of the drought and they are still cautious, even six months on. Memories of the parched land are too strong even now their land is green.
Some say they are preparing for the next drought.
There were 34 months in a row - nearly three years - of severe dryness across NSW.
But then, from January to May this year, downpours broke the drought. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, April and May were the first months since 2016 with anything like average rainfall in NSW and the Murray-Darling Basin.
Drive across the Southern Highlands today, for example, and the greenery almost blinds the eye.
The first rains were "a real relief," James Galbraith of Medway Farm in Sutton Forest on the Southern Highlands said.
But he still wasn't convinced. He feared a false start. "It was a hold-your-breath moment."
And then more came. "We got some really heavy soaking rain - a real good drenching rain."
"No-one believed it," another Southern Highlands farmer, Pat Cleary, said.
"It felt like relief but 'yeah, it's only a start'," is the way the beef farmer who has 305 acres at Moss Vale described the sensation.
"Then it rained again and we thought it might be OK."
Only then did he say he "cracked a stubby".
Some farmers say the greenery is deceptive. It is on the surface but some parts remain parched underneath.
Mr Cleary says the land hasn't fully recovered. Weeds have grown in the earth stripped of grass and the soil has taken a while to get saturated with water.
"We really like 10 millimetres of rain every week of the year."
Even after the months of rain, there are still three areas of New South Wales technically in drought - right at the north-west, north-east and south-west tips of the state.
But in August, 2018, every part of NSW was in drought. Farmers thought it would never end.
Drought and the end of drought is a constant calculation. Should farmers sell or slaughter cattle now or spend on feed in the hope of improvement? Does some rain now mean planting will pay off or will seedlings die when no more rain comes?
James Galbraith's farm has been in the family since 1887, when his great grandfather Frederick Galbraith bought it. He grew up there, swimming in the dams, so he knows the land and its water - and the lack of it.
"It was a really bad drought. My father who has lived here all his life said it's the worst he's ever gone through."
In this last drought, James Galbraith had to sell his cattle. "We sold the sheep first and then we had to get rid of all our 30 breeding cows."
Even now, he isn't rejoicing loudly. So far so good: "It's a really, really good season so far and hopefully we've got enough moisture to see us through.
"And if it continues, it'll be apple."
In his area, around Moss Vale, the rainfall was the lowest in any year except for one since records began 160 years ago - 1888 was worse.
Some businesses failed. "There were some farms where circumstances caught up with them," Pat Cleary said.
He cited potato growers locked into contracts and who then couldn't deliver the goods. "You can't miss out on three springs in a row," he said.
"Three or four families have gone to Tasmania and the far north coast," he said.
The farmers who survived this last drought have one thing in common: they treat droughts as normal and not as aberrations.
They plan in the bountiful years on the assumption that the rains will cease again as surely as night follows day.
"The old saying that you're either in a drought or preparing for a drought is true," dairy farmer Bill Smillie of Highland Organics said.
He is already preparing for the next drought.
"The last two winters have been pretty horrendous. The worst of it has been making sure your cows aren't hungry all the time."
Because his farm is organic, getting hay which met the requirements to be certified as organic was hard. It was expensive and some of it had to be trucked from north west Victoria and from north-east NSW.
He says the key is to use the years of bounty to prepare for the years of dearth.
He's got some guidelines for survival:
- Be as self sufficient as possible - fill up silage pits or buy in hay from other organic growers in seasons where they have a surplus.
- Have the healthiest soil you can.
- Have a high quality product that will always be in demand.
- Breed cows for lifetime production. Healthy cattle inevitably produce more over a long life.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
