Euroa is one of the big rural communities in my state.

Euroa ran out of water yesterday. Why? Because of high oil prices.

Australia has suffered climate-change drought for 5 years now. For months Euroa has depended on water trucked in from Seymour. When the price of oil went up, the trucking company discovered that they could not afford to honour their contract and so they asked to re-negotiate the contract to accommodate the higher price of oil. The Water Authority replied that their budget for this year did not allow them room for a re-negotiated contract.

So yesterday the people of Euroa woke up and turned on their taps to find that they had no water. The trucking company has declared that it is insolvent – unable to meet contracts at the current price of oil, and unable to re-negotiate - so it has gone out of business.

Today people in Euroa are talking about leaving the town. But Euroa supports all the surrounding farming communities. What will the farmers do? Who knows? After five years of climate-change drought, a lot of the farmers are ready to walk off the land. Maybe this will be the final straw and they will walk out.

Imagine a major rural town without a drop of water. That is Euroa.

The knock-on effects of higher oil prices are already being felt.