Re: Drought
 

Sounds like the "don't panic" letters were good advice. ;)

Any financial adviser worth their salt would not recommend this type of investment for anything less than 5 years.

:)

Re: Drought
 

Exactly.

And government employees will have protected super - as I did when I worked for Australia Post. :)

Re: Drought
 

I think the trick with Air Con is to use is sparingly - ie so you can sleep or take the edge off.

Re: Drought
 

Or have suitably designed houses that are designed to be cool, have breezes etc. When I did my Town Planning degree, we went to a place in north Melbourne (cant remember which suburb - maybe Fitzroy) that had an eco home that was designed to be naturally cool in summer and warm in winter - it was really incredible actually.

My parents have essentially had drought conditions since I've been in the UK - 9 years...... rainfall way, way below the usual. They live on the edge of what was my grandparents' farm......no-one is really farming properly where they are now, just a few hobby farmers. It's very sad.

I think that all homes should have rainwater collecting systems for flushing the loo and washing machines. www.adethebuilder.co.uk is a self build diary where I first came across this.

Re: Drought
 

Hmm. The direction that the economy seems to be heading in is something that has been concerning me. I'm not in a position to buy a house yet, and I was toying with the idea of sending my money back to the UK, until I'm sure I am going to stay here.

Growth definitely seems to be slowing here, and the drough will probably only compound that. I know I may lose a couple of £k, but that may be better in the long run. On the other hand, invested monies here do so well with nice high interest rates...

Decisions decisions...

S

Re: Drought
 

Totally agree with the comment about 'billion dollar band aids'. When it was announced that the farmers were getting more subsidies none of the politicians seemed at all embarrassed that they'd failed to act on scientific advice and have failed to provide a long term solution.

My point is not about whether the farmers get subsidies or not, but about the lack of long term planning. How many more years will millions of dollars be handed out without investment to address the underlying problem?

If neccessity is the mother of all invention Australia should be leading the world in water provision measures (and in the use of solar power too for that matter)

I'm not even talking about the desalination plants (like I believe they have in Israel), just basic measures such as enforcing that new build homes are fitted with water recyling units and maybe even water tanks too.

Doesn't take a genius. Some of measures necessary will cost a fortune to research and develop, but Mr Costello is sitting smugly on billions of dollars of budget surplus. What better way to spend it than on securing basic needs for the future.

I'll get of me soap box now... it just really winds me up (yer probably guessed though right? :) )

Re: Drought
 

I'm not 100% sure about this but I thought new builds in Victoria had to have either a rainwater tank or solar heated water.

:)

Re: Drought
 

Every now and then we have a bored moment and go for a wander around the show home estates. It still amazes me that none of the houses ever have a water tank attached to them. It's just plain wrong :mad: We are getting a tank put in, so it definitely won't rain for ages after we've got it, but having been on level 3 for a while and now going to level 4 on Wednesday - all builders should have to put in tanks.

Re: Drought
 

I agree, but there seems to be something of a paranoia here about using rain water and grey water, even for menial stuff like washing the car or watering the plants.

I can't get my head around this thinking personally.

S

Re: Drought
 

so you got your tank sorted, exciting stuff

Re: Drought
 

Most of the new suburbs around the Hills Districts have recycled water - so no restrictions for them. Most homes years ago had water tanks, no mains water, but then Councils in the city suburbs banned them, for reasons only known to themselves, Wouldn't say there was any paranoia about using grey or rain water.

Re: Drought
 

Indeed - remember the letters going out when I was working in Sydney.

People put their money in to low risk at the end. Which reminds me - need to put more of my super into riskier funds as I have a fair way to go.

Re: Drought
 

necessity may be the mother of all invention, but it was your mother-in-law that created the necessity.

Re: Drought
 

Ballarat has been on stage 4 restrictions for about 15 months. It has 17,000 megalitres left in its reservoir, which equates to 13pct strorage, at 4 pct the water is deemed unusable. The town is using 1,000 Megalitres per month. I've no idea of the proportion of water tanks per household in Ballarat, but I can assure you it's very high. Nothing the Government has come up with in this town has worked so far. The Vic Government is in the process of building a pipeline to take some of the depleted reserves out of the Goulburn Murray reserves into the Ballarat region. Thats just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Water is about to become a very expensive commodity... So much so that it will affect everyone in this country adversely.

Re: Drought
 

The "trick" is to use a humidistat in parallel with the thermostat. You don't need to run the A/C - and I'm not talking evaporative here - for long to get excess watervapour out of the air and then even 80'F becomes comfortable. It's the humidity which most people find unpleasant.

By switching the A/C through a humidistat, leaving the thermostat wound up as far as it'll go, you save 60% or so of your electricity bills, create a more comfortable house and don't hve the problems associated with very low interior humidity.