From the Australian Town and Country Journal, 9 February 1878
Bowning, a small township on the railway, is nine miles from Yass, and wears a very desolate appearance about the buildings in the village since the iron horse passed further on. A large number of the residents have forsaken the place to pitch their tents further along the line in the direction of Cootamundra. The land around is very sterile, even in good seasons, but now it is entirely barren, and hardly any agricultural operations are carried on. Water is becoming very scarce, and any fit for drinking purposes has mostly to be brought from Yass and such is the case nearly all the way to Cootamundra. Every train has its water tank attached, passenger and luggage alike, and then it does not supply one half of those requiring this now most precious fluid, and some have lately been compelled to imbibe what would make the Sydney folk grumble for a month. Sydneyites have no conception of the hardships that those in the country districts are now undergoing, with the prospect of having still worse to encounter. [Australian Town and Country Journal, 9 February 1878]