When we first arrived in Australia back in November 2007, we appeared to bring the British weather with us. Australia was in the midst of an ever worsening drought. All the talk was of saving water and “every drop counts” was the mantra of the South East Queensland Water Corporation.
Even before we’d left England, one of my best friends, Chris, said on learning we were moving to Australia “Why go there? They’ve got a severe water shortage, it’s a serious problem.”
But just a few days after we got here, it rained. And it kept raining. And raining, and raining…..
Some locals even claimed that we had saved Australia! Don’t be ridiculous, we would say.
Of course, it did stop eventually. And we sure have enjoyed plenty of hot, sunny and clear blue sky days since then. But we’ve also had rain by the bucket load.
Last weekend I posted a picture of the not so Gold Coast, and this weekend the Sunshine Coast has been anything but. Noosa recorded something like 260 mm of rain in one day.
But to fully understand just how much rain we have had here since we arrived from England, we only need to look at Wivenhoe Dam which is about 40 odd kilometres west of Brisbane.
Here is how it was just a few months before we arrived.
Since we’ve been here though, it’s got really full. In fact so full they did something they haven’t done for 10 years.
Yes, they poured a few mega-gallons away, throwing it into the river. Every dam in the region is now at 100%. So now I’m thinking, maybe we did save Australia. It’s hard to dispute it, isn’t it?
Does this country do knighthoods?
