End of gas in DOC huts?

Helicoptering gas bottles and hoppers of coal into huts was always questionable in my opinion anyway. Every hut with gas or coal supplied that I have stayed in has been occupied by wastrels so may not be a bad thing. Seems to be a way off though - not for a good few years.

But if they don't helicopter in all that gas, how are we going to boil all our water (including what we use to brush our teeth and wash our plates) as the current DOC signage demands?

you can't possibly expect people to carry their own stoves and fuel, in...... umm...hang on....

Boiling to purify water is excessive, it wastes fuel and is literally overkill. Pasteurization (as any industrial food processor knows) is where pathogen inactivation is at. Interestingly this video about backcountry pasteurization popped up in my Youtube feed a couple of days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIMeq0c7rJM

Yes boiling water is excessive, but a much simpler message to put on signage boards for the average new tramper. It’s also impossible to misinterpret boiling water so it’s pretty foolproof. For the experienced tramper who cares to learn, they’ll learn simpler, quicker and lighter methods - for most, a sawyer (or similar) filter is so much lighter an easier. Chemical treatment is lighter, but takes up to 4 hours to be fully safe, depending what the likely microbiology of your water source is. 15 minutes is sufficient for most sources. I don’t use them because they’re expensive, taste bad (though the Katadyn ones I have don’t taste too much like bleach) and I’m not a fan of chemically treats the microbiology of my stomach if I can help it. But it’s a good back up. Between my sawyer, a few days of tablets, my stove and ability to build a fire, I have water purification with 3 back up systems for 100g, about $80 and some undefined time learning and practicing skills.

Only failsafe method for cleaning water is distillation. That even makes sea water safe to drink

the signs telling you to treat hut water are a legal requirement now.... in order to say the water is safe to drink, DOC have to pay for independant water testers to visit the huts on a regular basis to prove th water is safe to drink, and in a lot of cases that would be by helicopter.. DOC cant afford to pay for the tests.... so they are legally required to put up signs saying the water should be treated before drinking....

From what I can see the rules apply to domestic and industrial use not recreational (yet) There are still few alternatives to fossil fueled camp stoves. There is the Triangia meths stove but thats it. Long term I expect battery powered induction cookers but the current battery tech would still mean a 5kg battery for a 4 day trip