I just heard about the flooding in Australia today.

[Russ Bellinis]

They reported on AOL that an area in Queensland the size of France and Germany combined was flooded with many cities completely cut off by the flood waters. I hope none of our Aussie members are under water!

[Herc Driver]

I sure hope none of our Aussie modelers are affected by that calamity...but I feel very sorry for those people that are...flooding is a terrible force of nature.

[Russ Bellinis]

I just read that the flood waters are heading towards Brisbane next and are expected to be 30 feet deep! They are warning people to watch out for snakes and crocodiles in their homes when the flood waters recede and they are allowed back in!

[torikoos]

I just read that the flood waters are heading towards Brisbane next and are expected to be 30 feet deep! They are warning people to watch out for snakes and crocodiles in their homes when the flood waters recede and they are allowed back in!

30 feet deep, and crocodiles and snakes to boot, it must be terrible to have to live through that and loose pretty much everything, there's me moaning if I can't get where I need to go because there's too much snow or ice on some of the british roads...... pales in comparison..

[nachoman]

That continent seems to be feast or famine with water the past few years. If not crippling drought and fires, it's floods. Kinda like southern california without the earthquakes.

[Sumpter250]

It's a sobering thought that so many of the things we absolutely must have to survive, we must have in moderation. Fresh water.....to little, we die of dehydration, to much, we drown.

[tetters]

It's a sobering thought that so many of the things we absolutely must have to survive, we must have in moderation. Fresh water.....to little, we die of dehydration, to much, we drown.

Anyone heard from OBJack? He's an Ozzie. Haven't seen him post in a while though either, hopefully that has more to do with the holidays then it does with the flooding.

[RobertInOntario]

This sounds terrible -- I'll try to catch this on the news tonight as I haven't been following the news much recently.

Rob

[faraway]

I heard in the news an area of the size of France and Germany is flooded.

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not sure, but I seem to recall one of OB Jack's early posts saying he lived in the south part of the country. Woody used to post here, but I haven't heard anything from him in a long time either.

[OBJack]

Hi guys, thanks for your concerns for us over here... so I will check in to say that I'm OK.
Tetters and Russ, you are right I live in the South West of Oz, or nearly exactly opposite the drama that is being played out east, and yes, it has been holidays that have made me so slack and slothful, I have just returned from a little jaunt and was checking out Big Blue when I saw this post.

The flooding has now gone all the way down the East coast of Australia (albeit a little further inland as it went south) and flooding is now being reported in the State of Victoria, with some towns receiving over half their annual rainfall in a few days, and little creeks are now raging torrents and half a mile wide.
Some of these farmers were coming off ten years of drought and could see a 5 tonne wheat crop out their front door (of which they were harvesting at the time) being swept away under 10 feet of water .. heartbreaking.

In Brisbane they said the Brisbane river rose 22 meters, that is about 70 feet I think, some of the houses were completely submerged,as well as parts of the CBD, and in towns further west houses were swept away.
The absolute force of nature.
But the people are rallying, and it is when these crisis hit, is when we find out what makes us tick. Some great stories of compassion, heroics, mateship and tragedy have emerged that define a people, enemies are suddenly friends, and we all have a common goal to see our fellow countrymen are OK, so the support is fantastic.
I guess no different from any where in the world, tragedy strikes and humanity rallies.

Thanks Folks,
Jack and the War Office.

[Mr Fixit]

I think this poem might help explain Australia to you guys as the full poem details all that happens in this wide brown land.

I Love A Sunburnt Country
by Dorothea Mac Kellar [1908 written 1906]
Verse 2

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of drought and flooding rains,
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me.

Basically if you want to live in Australia then you have to accept that this land will at times break your heart.

We live in a country approximately the size of Continental USA, but with only a population of @ 22 Million versus @ 280 Million in Continental USA [total USA 307 Million] and a geographically older continent with tired soils and vast arid deserts, something which our near neighbours fail to realise when they compare land mass to population density.

Some of our politicians were talking up growing the population to 30 Million plus until they got feedback from the electorate that we are sick of road congestion and worried about water supplies. There is great debate here in Victoria about the cost of the Desalination plant currently under construction at Wonthaggi, but what people have already forgotten is that our dams supplying water for Melbourne were headed below 50% after 10 years of drought and 5 years of water restrictions.
We havent opened a new dam since the Thompson Dam in the late '70s, which was supposed to 'Drought Proof Melbourne', what they didnt factor in was the rate of population growth has exceeded predictions and now with the Greenies, building a new dam will be almost impossible.

ARRRRGH

Mark

[P5se Camelback]

OMG!!

You've got those blinkin' @#*%@ down in Oz, too!

They won't be happy until we all live in caves and eat foraged berries and tree bark and the overpopulation of predator animals eat us!

I must admit they are the source of some amusement, though!

They spend years bringing the California Condor back from the "brink of extinction" ...

They cause land development to be blocked because the area is native habitat to some obscure rodent.

They cause the diverting of water to some of the country's most furtile farmland to be halted, turning it into a dust bowl, and causing food prices to rise ...

... and forcing many farmers into financial ruin and hundreds of farm workers into the unemployment lines,

all because of some tiny fish that isn't even native to the area!

They campaign obnoxiously for "alternative green power" ... so an "environmentally correct" windmill farm is constructed at a cost of several million taxpayer dollars ...

... and birds fly into the spining blades and are killed by the hundreds ...

... and the noise created by the turbines is so annoying to residents,

it causies them migrane headaches and nights of lost sleep ...

... and so an ordinance is unanimously passed to shut the thing down at wind speeds over 23 mph ...

And the windmills' turbines don't hit peak proficiency until 35 mph!!

You can't make this stuff up!