Interest in using telemetry to check on remote water supplies on huge cattle and sheep stations has skyrocketed due to drought, rural labour shortages, rising fuel prices and clear proof that the technology can save big money, according to Colleen James, project officer for the Desert Knowledge CRC's WaterSmart program.

"The savings are astronomical – between $25,000 and $35,000 a year from the cases we've studied so far," she said.

"One station paid for all its gear in eight months.

"Two years ago only a handful of stations were doing it. Now, across the whole of Australia, it is being widely adopted."

Telemetry – the ability to monitor what goes on in remote parts of a huge grazing property from the homestead, the ute or even via the internet while on holiday overseas – is transforming pastoralism in the 21st century, giving graziers a new way to manage their livestock, water and rangeland vegetation.

On Mt Ive Station in South Australia, the figures speak for themselves: over 12 months the use of telemetry saved pastoralist Len Newton $33,000, 10,000 kilometres in travel and almost 500 man hours of work.

On Monkira Station in Queensland, owned by the North Australian Pastoral Company, the saving was around $25,000 for 12 months, travel dropped by 3000 kms and man hours spent checking water points almost halved.

"It's made an absolutely huge difference to us," Mr Newton said.

"We didn't really realise how big it was going to be.

"Once we learned you could trust the system to report truthfully what was happening at all the water points, the savings were massive.

"You can actually watch the water levels in the tanks go down when the stock are drinking, and then watch them come up again as the solar-powered pumps refill them.

"All I have to do is check the troughs – and we're thinking of fitting trough monitors, too."

In 2006, Mr Newton and his staff were doing up to 1600km/month behind the wheel of the ute, just checking on water. Last year this was down to around 500km.

Likewise man hours were down from as high as 80 a month to 20 or so – a huge factor in a rural sector that is desperately short of skilled labour.

"It means we’re free to attend to other urgent jobs, like fixing fences," he said.

On Monkira Station, manager Anthony Desreaux and his team were able to spot and clear a blocked outlet on a turkey's nest dam which might otherwise have caused structural damage to the dam wall from a spill-over, as well as serious loss of water.

Coupled with remote camera technology for monitoring livestock and the ability to open and close gates as well as switch water points on and off remotely, a pastoral revolution appears on the cards.

Moving stock around continuously through control of water, grazing pressure can be spread more evenly across the landscape, reducing the risk of overgrazing which usually occurs near water points.

This approach to automated rotational grazing is closer to the natural habits of sheep and cattle in the wild and is thought by some rangelands experts to be more productive, as well as gentler to the country.

However, there are drawbacks to the new technology – in particular the extreme liking of cockatoos and other parrots for chewing sensitive electronic cables, aerials and other gear.

Solutions have ranged from wrapping them in a red-hot chilli-flavoured cover that the birds don't like to chew, and draping rubber snakes over them, the approach adopted by one frustrated but inventive pastoralist.