When the Central Western Daily's photographers snapped scenes around Orange in January 2020 the picture was dry, parched and dusty.

Orange's water levels were down to just over 20 per cent capacity, we had been on Level 5 water restrictions for three months, and had another seven to go, and we had been in drought for three years.

Just a year later the city is in a vastly different situation.

Rainfall has ended the drought, we have fallen to Level 2 restrictions and the water storage capacity is 63 per cent.

Orange has seen 31 millimetres of rain in the first three days of the year - compared to no rainfall for the first five days of 2020.

And the Bureau of Meteorology says the wet weather will continue.

BOM Head of Operational Climate Services Dr Andrew Watkins said Australia was in for a wetter than normal summer.

"Our climate outlook is the opposite of what we experienced last year in Australia. This summer, NSW, Victoria and Queensland are expected to see above average rainfall," he said.

Orange City Council Environmental Sustainability Policy committee chair Cr Stephen Nugent said valuable lessons had been learned from the drought.

"I think we are better placed than we were two years ago," he said.

"We need to be learning from what has happened."

Cr Nugent said the council had completed or was working on a series of projects to increase the city's capacity to handle future droughts.

"Hopefully we won't get into the position where we were facing Level 6 restrictions [again]" he said.

"We have learned a lot. I think that while last summer's heat shook up communities across Australia we are better placed than we were before."

He said when the council returned to business in February he would be seeking to ensure all environmental projects identified were completed.

"The council staff have been working on these issues for the last year to 18 months. There have been a number of initiatives put in place," he said.

They include the installation of a pipeline from Spring Creek reservoir to the water treatment works to limit the amount of water lost along the way in previous open air channels.

He said the use of recycled water under the 'purple pipe' scheme should be encouraged.

And he said encouraging residents to reduce their water use had been successful in Orange.

"Orange people have been fantastic in that regard by reducing the use of potable water to some of the lowest levels in Australia," he said.