Hubby and I are having second thoughts about moving to Brisbane because of the water shortage. Our dream could easily become a nightmare as we find ourselves washing our smalls out in the sink and having one shower a week. Apparently you are supposed to just use 140 litres a day and a washing mashine uses 200!

I don't mean to be rude but wheer did you get these figure from, your washing machine either be faulty or be industrial sized if it uses 200 litres of water per wash.

I have a Zanusi washing machine and it only uses 90 litres oer wash and that is at the most. I have also checked out water efficiency sources and they all say that an avarage washing maching only uses 110 litres per avarage wash.

Even so I do a wash per day at mo and if it uses 110 that leaves 30 litres a day for a whole family to get showered, water plants wash up etc etc. I have been reading stories about people moving over then moving back to Uk because of this problem. Are you currently living in Brisbane?

Interested to know where you read these stories

Have a look at:

http://www.qwc.qld.gov.au/Water+restrictions

Its a suggested 140 litres per person not per property.

cheers

Andy

I haven't read or heard of anyone that has given up and gone home due purelyto water restrictions in Brisbane.
As above, its a suggested 140 litres per person.
Presumably you are not doing a full load of washing a day just for yourself?! If you have a family and are doing a load a day, using an effiicient washing machine, there isn't a problem. You do the washing up when its worth doing - not a sink full of water for two plates, for example. And I can promise you that no-one in Brisbane is just rinsing their underwear in the sink and showering once a week (at least not because of the water shortage, they might be doing it because they are just weird!)- where on earth did you read that

I thought people in Brisbane didn't wear underwear, they spend their whole lives in swimmers on the beach don't they?

Buzzy

I am not living in Brisbane at the momment, however I have 4 friends (families of 4-5) and they are not having any trouble with there water. They are only complaining about not being able to top up the pool, wash the car or water the grass, but apart from they seem to be doing fine with the water shortage.

The thing is though, the level 5 water restrictions only came into force on the 5th April this year, before that they were on Level three.

Some of them don't wear footwear, uncivilised animals:curse:

Im not sure what level 5 or 3 is but is it a temporary thing or a situation that is going to become worse.

It was an article in the Independant dated 28th April entitled 'Meanwhile, in Australia a global crisis arrives in the backyard'.

SE Queensland generally has wet summers / dry winters, so in the short terms I'd be expecting it to get worse. We were there two years ago and the reservoir levels were at 30%, now down to 20%. If there's no rain and water levels drop further they'll go to greater lengths to conserve what water they have. Water restrictions can go up to Level 8.

Will the place run dry? Rain or no rain, I can't imagine the National or State government would allow that to happen.

To be honest if this kind of thing is scaring you off then I really think you should be having second thoughts - there will be other much harder challenges ahead. Perhaps you should consider a different region with more rain - Perth has had some recently.

I dont feel Im being unreasonable asking questions about key issues. i think people who move to the other side of the world and dont consider has the country Im moving to got enough natural resources to sustain that population are mad. Its not like Im thinking 'Oh I can buy M&S underwear or tomato ketchup'! as some people seem to live in fear of.

I'm with you loiner. I would say that the fear of a country running out of water would be pretty high up on the list of things that would make people seriously think twice.

It has been on my mind also, but we're still going.

Who knows how bad it will get - but we'll be there first hand to find out