Our post asking where Australia’s worst tap water produced a wide range of candidates. But there was a lot of agreement on the two areas where tap water is really good: Tasmania and the Northern Territory.
Picture by Tim Parkinson
Many commenters pointed out that there are variables other than the city you’re in which influence water quality, including your distance from the nearest treatment plant and the age of the pipes in your house. If there was one dominant message, however, it was that Tasmania and the Northern Territory have excellent supplies. Stove’s comment is pretty typical:
Each time I visit Tasmania, I’m shocked as to how good the tap water tastes. I don’t know how bottled water companies manage to sell anything over there.
That outcome is of course not entirely surprising, as a much lower density of population means less strain on the infrastructure. Nonetheless, I’m tempted to head to Tassie and test a glass or two myself.
Grim
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 3:45 PMSo after asking us for opinions of the *worst* water, you draw conclusions from the resulting comments on who has the *best*?
This doesn’t sound like a very well formulated study =D
Angus Kidman
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:27 PMI’m not claiming statistical significance. It was an unexpected outcome that seemed worth noting.
Ritzo
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 3:09 PMHaha! Back in your place Grim, off you go.
I used to live in Darwin and the water was second to non, I’m in Townsville now and it’s pretty good. Though I don’t know what the science says about the quality of water here. I’m sure no one really wants to know whats in there water, it just ends in tears.
Wayne
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 3:58 PMHah, I live in Tasmania…and I agree. The water and the wildlife are the only good things going on down here.
Sam
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 3:59 PMI’m not going to go into a lot of detail regarding this, but I am currently employed in the water industry down in Tassie at the moment, though admittedly; I’m not primarily involved in infrastructure.
Generally speaking though, water services down here are a bit of a mess, having been managed and neglect by councils for quite some time. As well as major upgrades being required for various pipage, Hobart still remains the only capital city where more than 90% of service properties are yet to receive water meters.
The fact that Tasmanian water is reputed to be some of the best in Australia is probably more of a testament to the climate and geography down here – there’s no shortage of annual rainfall; and topography state-wide is pretty conducive to building dams (both for water service and hydro-electricity production). Greater volumes of water coming through dams mean healthier less stagnant water and water ecosystems.
The interesting factor though, is that age, condition and maintenance of water infrastructure were highlighted as being primary causes for bad tasting water; yet Tasmania (and more specifically Hobart’s) water service seems to contradict this claim.
Sam
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:01 PMSpell-check not be my friend again today :(
Stove
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:32 PMAnd suddenly I’m famous.
Daniel
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 4:32 PMActually down here in tassie we have a bottled water that I believe is unfiltered.
Its called Love from tassie.
Danielle
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 6:12 PMI’ve never compared Tassie’s water to another state, but it tastes fine. Anyone else find that water out of the bathroom tap always tastes better than the kitchen tap? Seriously.
@Sam, you’re not wrong about the Tasmanian water services being a mess. The split of water providers into Southern, Ben Lomond and Cradle Mountain Water is a joke.
Sam
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 9:01 PMWhile having the three corp’s isn’t as big an advantage as a single authority would be, I can confidently say that the change has been for the better. Unfortunately, the capital and investment for upgrades to infrastructure have to be paid from from somewhere, which is why we’re now seeing an increase in rates.
Tom
Monday, August 8, 2011 at 2:36 PM“Anyone else find that water out of the bathroom tap always tastes better than the kitchen tap? Seriously”
I find this too. I don’t know why but it does.
Escherichia
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 7:40 PMI remember the water in the Blue Mountains, NSW, as being beautiful. It was 24 years ago though!
Luke
Thursday, August 4, 2011 at 7:58 PMThe thing i would like to see a study done on what makes drinking water good or bad, its good but opinion just skews results.
I want to know whats in the water that makes it smell and taste bad.
kdnolan
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 9:41 AMTasmania was the first state to introduce Fluoride….
Fluoride is a deadly poison, that we are all drinking.
Chris Jennings
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 12:15 PMHere we go with the fluoride BS. Look at the facts, and I think most people will agree that the pros of adding fluoride outweigh the cons.
Ollie
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 12:45 PMThere’s always one lol. SHOOSH about Tassie water, it’s our secret.
madskins
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 9:31 AMthere’s always one…. ANYTHING in high enough concentrations is a ‘deadly poison’, the truth is fluoride aids dental health ( look at the dental health stats between Tasmania ( with fluoride) and Queensland (no fluoride)) Scaremongering shows your dark age mentality…
Paul
Friday, August 5, 2011 at 8:07 PMI live in Perth Our dams are at 20%. All we are drinking is the slime at the bottom.
Nick
Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 10:44 PMI’m heading off to Tas in a month for a short holiday. I will now purposely taste the water down there, and if it doesn’t come up on my list of top ten things to do in Tas, I will be having some very strong words for LifeHacker for giving out such false recommendations
Elisa Mann
Saturday, May 26, 2012 at 2:26 AMI don’t know where in Tasmania these people live. Where ever I lived and I lived in many different places in Tassie, the water was a health threat. Often we were even told that we have to boil it, usually after everyone got sick. Now I am living in a place where the water gets treated and it stinks that bad like chemicals and tastes too, that even after filtering it it is still horrible. All people here drink their rainwater because the tap water is not drinkable.
I used to work in tourism and oftenn had to warn tourists not to drink unboiled water. You should have seen their faces because they believed the ‘clean green’ myth, sold to the tourists.
I have been living here for 20n years now and I know that Tasmania has the highest bowel cancer statistic, not only that, it is still on the rise here. Now we are paying horrendous prizes for water we can’t drink. It really is a joke. One can only cringe reading these clean green, pristine poppycock.