Don

And leaving Perth area for a minute, most of the rest of Aus where nearly all people live, say, a belt 50 or so kms in from the coast, is very green as well. Surprisingly green if you think Aus is just a desert. We're talking huge areas of rainforest and temperate vegetation.

Cheers - Don

dpr21

I try and avoid dentists - already had too many root canals. Seriously though my sincere apologies, I am well aware of the differences canadian vs American. However, I thought that perhaps in order to make valid comparisons, people might use a 'generic dollar' such as the greenback rather than use Canadian, Aus, or other dollars. No offence intended ciao.

DPR

baldbutts

We watched it last night-we record everything & watch later (I can't believe Lady Di's dead-when did that happen?)!
Great programme,and Sue6969,when you were filming,did the bird presenting have no bra on again.

BB-pause button connoisseur

cinderella

Did not look like she had one on tonight either.

baldbutts

Sorry,I was trying to tune Radio Luxembourg 'til I realised it was the same programme ?

BB-sorry,did she have a head ?

pommie bastard

I take it you have flown over this green I should I say red country its 90% a red waste land , I think Helena has never seen a green and pleasant land .
The only thing that looks green around here are the watered lawns even they varie in greeness.

Perth Helena

Gee, brown, then yellow, now red. You having a psychedelic episode?

You made some completely ridiculous, hyper-exaggerated sweeping statement earlier about this place being a "dustbowl" or that it was all brown and yellow, or some other miserable ale-coloured glasses view typical of you. People then responded with some facts about Australia.

Yes, Australia is DRY, but NOT a "dustbowl". There is a variety of terrain in this VAST country, from the red centre and deserts to tropical forests and quite a bit of greenery given the country is so dry. Some of us are concerned that people who have never been here will get some screwed-up perception of the place because of some of the exaggerated rubbish you post. Listening to you, a person could be forgiven for thinking that the Nullarbor started 100 metres in from the beach.

If all you can see is green lawns and none of the green shrubbery and trees in Perth, then you need to have your eyes tested. Besides, since when it is a requirement for a place to be completely green to be beautiful? Does a country need to be covered in perfect, uniformly green lawns to be beautiful? Can't appreciate the variances in beauty in all the different landscapes of the world without obsessing about things not being completely green?

And btw, you miserable old cuss, I lived in a bloody rainforest (Vancouver) for half my life. Not only did I see a green land, but I lived right in it, along with all the bloody rain required to get it that colour!

pommie bastard

You are right Dust Storm not bowl, most of this Island is the pits, looking at NSW thats turning brown with the amount of fires burning there?



More dust storms are forming in outback Australia

The World Today - Thursday, October 24, 2002 12:42

JOHN HIGHFIELD: With many people in outback Australia getting their first taste literally of what it's like to eat and sleep with the fine red dust, there are warnings there's a lot more to come.

But there's always some good of this. Some of Australia's red earth contains large amounts of iron and it will end up as food to encourage photo-plankton to feed the whales in the Great Southern Ocean.

Dr Roger Stone from the Queensland Centre for Climate Applications said the dust storm was a fairly typical event during an El Nino weather pattern, and residues from previous Australian dust storms many years ago have been found in ice moving down the glaciers of New Zealand.

ROGER STONE: I know some of the work done in Australia on these particular dust storms shows that during these El Nino years that we're right in the middle of at the moment, if the conditions are just right, then sure enough we'll get a dust storm of some sort hitting some part of Australia.


EVEN as Australia comes to grips with its worst drought since 1983, getting the message of outback hardship to the coastal cities remains a difficult issue.

Despite water restrictions affecting townships from Melbourne to central Queensland, life on the coast is a picnic compared to western New South Wales, outback Queensland, parts of South Australia and northern Victoria.

However, one single event on October 23 brought the country's drought to town in the form of Australia's largest dust storm in 30 years.

Tens of millions of tonnes of topsoil, or an estimated two million semi-trailer loads of dust, all of it dry-as-a-bone, were driven aloft by convection preceding a vigorous cold front during the night of October 22.

The dust band, so large it was clearly visible by satellite, moved across the east coast and out into the Tasman the next day.

Towns from Mildura, in Victoria's north, to Mt Isa in central Queensland were cloaked in a grey light, as the front moved through, that smelled, and tasted, of earth. Stretching for 1500km, south-east to north-west and reaching 400km at its widest, the dust band soared 2500 metres into the sky.

Bringelly, south-west of Sydney, recorded a reading of 150 micrograms of dust per cubic metre of air while a reading of 116 was taken in north-west Sydney. The NSW Environment Protection Authority says a reading of 50 is considered high.

Don

Looks pretty green in large parts to me. Especially around the edges and in QLD rainforest and Sydney mountains and more or less everywhere people live in high numbers.

Cheers - Don

pommie bastard

Very good do the colouring yourself? last time I saw any green was looking in the toilet pan after a good curry.What this word drought mean anyway does that suggest that things go brown and die?

Rangelands represent one of Australia's most precious resources with 70% of Australia's land mass described as arid or semi arid. Social and ecomomic opportunities offered by this region are as diverse as the environment itself. The sustainable future of the rangelands depends on our ability to work together to both utilise and protect this great natural resource.

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) _ As crops and livestock wither and die on Australia's drought-stricken farms, business leaders are clashing with scientists over the best way to protect the nation from such devastating dry spells in the future.



AUSTRALIAN towns and cities are fast running out of water and would soon have to find new sources, a parliamentary report today found.

City water use is unsustainable, with reform not keeping pace with the ecological damage of water use, a Senate committee report said.

"Australians use about 350 litres per person per day, and despite significant reductions in per capita consumption over the past decade, overall demand is gradually increasing due largely to increasing population," the report said.

"On current trends many cities and towns in Australia will still need to find new sources of water unless there are significant improvements in water conservation."

Some areas are harvesting water at a greater rate than they are being recharged.

2thick

PB stop arguing with those Aussie ***** please COME HOME NOW. Its raining the whole time and you can get as wet and stay as green as you like

sue5665

Hi Baldbutts,
Sorry to disappoint you but Amanda Lamb is not the presenter of the new series, the new presenter is Zilpah Hartley from Yorkshire, but good news she don't wear a bra either. (not that she has got much to put in it anyway!!).
Sue

pommie bastard

I find strange that you good people do not like getting wet , are the Aussies right Poms do not wash?

2thick

This is blatant aussie b*llsh*t propaganda. I usually wash at least oce a fortnight in summer

2thick

pommie bastard

That often bloody hell is that good for us ? my last bar of soap lasted 10years and never had a excess water bill yet.