Is australia still experiencing a drought?

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Ken E

Depends where you are since Australia and even the states are pretty big. New South Wales is more than double the size of Texas and Queensland is more than three times bigger than Texas. Some local government areas are larger than Belgium.

Some places like parts of central New South Wales and s-east Victoria are supposed to be out of drought. Central Queensland looks OK but the south east corner is still bad as far as I know.

In Canberra there has been some worthwhile rain over the past few weeks but the overall drought continues. 2005 was a normal rainfall year here but the previous 6 years and the years since have all been drought. I have not washed my car since March.

As you may have heard more than 500 houses were burnt down and four people killed by a wildfire here in Canberra a few years ago. The recent California fires seemed to be much the same sort of thing.

A lot of Australia looks like Arizona anyway so drought is a relative matter.

The lawn mower repair and sales business near me has recently closed. Not enough new mowers being sold and not enough others being serviced. So it affects suburban businesses too.

There is a federal election soon. It does not always happen but sometimes when there is a change of government droughts break! Actually it's all El Nino-Southern Oscillation related.

tentofield

Parts of Australia are still in drought but much is not. Unfortunately much of the wheat belt is in drought yet again and wheat crops will be low in some areas.

ELLE

Yes, there are still water restrictions here as there is a concern that we will run out of water for household use. They were talking about desalination of sea water (yuck) or reusing used water after steralising (even worse!). I think the situation is getting better as this talk has stopped. It rained all last week but sometimes it doesn't rain over the water catchment areas and sometimes it just rains on and off just to make everything wet but not enough. At the moment hoses are bannes at all times except before 10.00am and after 5.30pm on Wednesdays and Sundays, but only to water gardens. Hoses can not be used for any hard surfaces like cement, windows or cars. To wash tyour car you need to use a bucket. A few months ago I heard on the news that they are going to leave these water restrictions even if the water supply increases for at least the next 30 years. It may be for the best...

Elizabeth

Yes, sadly we are still in drought.
Hopefully, we'll get some good Summer rains that will help us out.
There are different restrictions depending where you live and depending on the amount of water available.
Some areas are down to less than 13% in the dams.
No outside use of water, using town water, for any reason. Definately no car washing, no garden watering (even with a bucket) no outside use at all.

old man

Yes we are suffering from a drought. But, and this is a big but, we are a country of extremes. We will have a drought one year and a massive flood the next. I am in a small town near to the River Murray, and the local industry is Citrus growing, and the wine grape industry. Our growers are at the moment limited to 16% of their normal water allocation, and many will go broke, but this is not due solely to the drought. Our biggest problem is multi-nationals (and I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but most are American companies) who dont give a damn about the small block farmer. They have bought thousands of acres of land at the headwaters of our river system, and planted cotton.. Yup, I said Cotton. One of the thirstiest crops you could grow. They suck all of the water out of the river system allowing amost zero flow. And they don't give a damn!
My background is the pastoral industry, that is sheep stations. On 1000 square miles we used to run only 12,000 sheep,which works out to about 50 acres per sheep. so that should give some idea of the condition of the country.Where I am we have an average rainfall of only 10 inches per year, but in north Queensland they can have as much as 6 meters per year..

But Why??

yep we are, rain needed allways here.

mistysmum

It sure is. Our farmers are all doing it really tough, there is drought almost everywhere, except for a few fertile spots. Most of the capital cities are on stringent water restrictions and beginning to look at desalination plants, water grids, (means piping water from where there is plenty to where there is hardly any). People living with these restrictions are expected to cut their useage to 140 litres per person per day, 4 minute showers etc. They can only water their gardens with a bucket. I live at the Sunshine Coast, in the State of Queensland, about 60 miles north of Brisbane (the capital of the state). We have plenty of water here, our dam is full, but 60 miles south they get very little rain in comparison to us, and their dam is only about 18% full. But Australia is the driest continent in the world, so its hardly surprising. Everyone is hanging for and praying for the climate cycle to change and normal rain seasons to resume.

jak_sta

yes it is still experiencing drought.
i think nealry everyone in australia is doing their bit to help water conservation

good on you fellow aussies :)

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South East Queensland is experiencing the worst drought on record and dam levels are critically low. From
10 April 2007 Level 5 restrictions apply in South East Queensland to help conserve water.

*Under Level 5 restrictions, households who use
more than 800 litres per day will be required to
complete an assessment of their water use.

*Residents may no longer wash their entire vehicles
(including caravans and boats).

*Residents can use a restricted amount of town
water on gardens, but watering established lawns
is no longer permitted.

*Under Level 5, filling new or renovated pools isnâ€™t
permitted except if you signed the contract to build
or renovate the pool before 10 April 2007.

*Residents can continue to use town water for
washing and cleaning their petsâ€™ enclosures with a
high pressure water cleaning unit. Pets can be washed with a hand held hose and town water can be used for drinking water.

*General cleaning of items such as wheelie bins and
barbeques can be cleaned with a hand held bucket
filled directly from a tap or high pressure cleaning
unit to prevent or address a health or safety risk.

*4 minute showers.

Live_For_Today

Whilst some parts are still in drought and are now going to be going into level 6 water restrictions, I feel it won't be for much longer as we are also heading into our wet season and already got our first cyclone developing off the Northern East coast right at the top. Because we had a normal winter this year, we will have a normal wet season.

maram

I am on the other side of the world from Australia, sorry i don't know.

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