It's actually funny, because lately, rain has been pouring in Newcastle and its surrounds as well. It seems to have stopped now.

I remember some time ago, there was a big downpour of rain to the point where one of the local towns was close to a flood, but it didn't rain where it needed to rain, and thus it had no real effect on the state's water levels. So... yeah.

Not yet, to my knowledge. Apparently they have pipelines for various areas of the country, but not all areas. And given that the last State Premier of NSW's strategy for the water situation was pretty much "Let's restrict water and pray for a miracle!" IIRC, I doubt anything will happen in that regard for some time.

(On an unrelated note, I know the Hunter Water Board was once asked to give the Sydney Dams some of its water, but they refused. So it was either assuming Sydneysiders would waste it all, or a lack of co-operation on Hunter's part. It was at least two years ago, though.)

Rain has actually been falling quite nicely on our arid landscape (Saudi Arabia) and the run off dams in our area are quite full thank you. :)