Dave, I hear ya there. My old chef up in Michigan actually orders in about 20 - 30 # of lobster heads once a year, makes lobster stock, then freezes it for use throughout the year.
I've always cooked with stock. I only use water in my cooking to cook pasta, plain white rice (rarely cook that anymore), to poach chicken for soup (I will usually use that liquid, fortified with homemade stock for the soup itself), and to make stock with.
Uncle Bob, I hear ya about the shrimp heads. There's an Asian grocery store that I shop at, and it's the only place in town to get head-on shrimp, as well as live blue crabs, and even live crawfish.
Bilby, could you enlighten us Yanks on what "yabbie bisque" is?