Drought: it’s flamin’ deadly in the heat of the Australian summer.
Drought alone won’t kill a man, but it will devastate him. Drought’ll kill a man’s crops and his livelihood. It’ll depress him. And it’ll make his nearest town look like a desert oasis. As the drought extends its grip over Southern Australia this summer, it’s looking like not such a Merry Christmas for some.
Barb wrote a great blog last week about how country towns celebrate Christmas, as opposed to the big cities. In the bush, we like to keep it simple. No need for “jingle bells” or big fireworks displays here. Record-breaking heatwaves and killer bushfires have been part ‘n parcel of the festive season in rural Australia forever – they don’t stop us coming together. Summer after summer, record high temps are broken and new records are set: they tell us this Christmas/New years, heat-wise, will be worse than we’ve seen for a while.
The Victorian Country Fire Authority has issued a warning that Southern Australia stands to have the worst drought conditions since the 1930s this festive/summer season.
In New South Wales, the latest official drought figures released by the Department of Primary Industries paint a bleak picture for 73.6% of the state battling. Not even the coastal areas of South Eastern Australia have escaped the dry. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Insert: Spring started warm and dry in much of Australia. In addition to high land surface temperatures in September 2006, many of the country’s agricultural areas were facing 6- to 12-month rainfall deficiencies that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology categorized as serious, severe, or lowest on record. In southern Western Australia, one of the country’s prime wheat-growing regions, rainfall between April and September was less than half the average amounts. Parts of South Australia, much of Victoria, and south-central New South Wales had been racking up deficits for 9 to 12 months or longer. Severe drought had settled over many areas. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dry conditions are going to take a devastating toll for those making their living on the land this Christmas. Farmers are already feeling the pain with current warmer temperatures and hot winds seeing pasture growth and water supplies decline. That combined with the forecast of below average rainfall doesn’t paint a very pretty picture at all.
There’s support out there but only for those who reach out. And as far as Government assistance is concerned, not all regions in drought are receiving the assistance they and their elected representatives believe they need.
State Governments nation-wide say they’re doing all they can to convince the Rudd Government that desperately dry regions which have not been included in their drought assistance program are considered for Exceptional Circumstances funding in time for Christmas.
Regions such as the Eurobodalla-Shoalhaven region in NSW and right up north of Queensland in the Gulf of Carpentaria are waiting for the Feds to accept their applications for Exceptional Circumstances.
The ABS calculated that 10,636 families gave up farming during the most severe drought years between 2001 and 2006 and farmers say if they can’t get the assistance they need, they’ll be fleeing too.
This is why we all really need to open our hearts and our wallets this Christmas – and the best place to start is at your local Kmart. Not shopping there – giving there. Supporting Australia’s largest Christmas gift appeal and putting a present under the Salvos Wishing Tree.
“2009 has also been a year of unprecedented natural disasters with bushfires and floods affecting many people across Australia,” says Major Gary Masters from the Salvation Army. The Black Saturday fires in February don’t even need a mention here, still fresh in most peoples’ memories.
Apart from the homeless and those in drought, gifts from the Christmas Appeal are delivered from a ‘flying Santa’ up in Queensland – an outback flying service funded by the Salvos which drops toys to an area from Weipa to Birdsville and across to the NT border.
The service started last year and before then, many of the Indigenous kids in those communities had never had a Christmas.
So join me in the spirit of giving gifts to those less fortunate – even just a couple of things – this month… you can’t beat the feeling that comes with knowing you’re making someone’s Christmas a little more cheery.
Look at the smile on the face of this little guy below ..
Posted: Friday December 4, 2009 .. Published: 10 days ago by philippa.
Tags: drought, drought assistance, Exceptional Circumstances, summer, heat, heatwaves, bushfires, christmas gift appeal, Christmas, Salvation Army
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