Wol

You have to remember that Australia is a continent and, like all continents, has a breat diversity of weather conditions - many of them extreme.

Mid-continental thunderstorms tend to be very intense, tropical coastal ones large and damaging with huge hail and torrential rain.

Where we are - Southern Highlands - the SouthWesterly winds of the end of Winter last six - nine weeks and are extremely strong and damaging. (This year they lasted until December....)

In many states the drying winds have to be experienced to be believed: they dessicate the ground which becomes totally unable to absorb water when (if) the rains come, so severe flooding is common.

The sunlight is unlike anything in Europe - or anywhere else that I've seen. You can feel the UV eating into the arms and face in minutes. It actually stings.

We are well into the bushfire season now. Most of the native vegetation has highly imflammable oils to protect against water loss and goes up like gunpowder when lightning strikes or - as likely - arsonists do their stuff. Many bushfires are in inaccessible areas and can spread to vast sizes before being controlled.

Just be prepared for extremes, don't buy a house in anything remotely low-lying near river systems or isolated in bushland - do research!

Looking forward to Oz

I'm going to have to go to Cairns cause new employer has paid for PR visa, flight and short term accomm - cant afford to pay all that back at once!!

Im a scaredy cat and wouldnt move until i had a job lined up - purely cause i have no savings to live off for a few months, and cant afford all the visa costs and flights and other relocation costs! My sis and her bloke moved out with no jobs (and she was 8 months pregnants!).

I've never been to Oz, at all. I went to NZ for a month in December for a holiday (my first time to NZ), my sis lives in Auckland now and has been out for about a year. I didnt think much to the rest of NZ, I travelled round the south island for while (pretty boring besides a few hills/mountains) but Auckland was lovely - esp when the sun came out. If I had to move to NZ it would be to Auckland - its also where most the jobs are esp in IT and finance.

I'm giving myself a minimum of a year in Cairns before i think to come back. I think it would look odd on my cv if i go for say 3 months then come back, i cant use the sentence "im highly adaptable". If i go for a year and dont like then i can say to interviewers that it was a one year contract (not that i lie (often) in interviews!).

I'll be sure to keep in touch. I fly on 10th Feb which is now seeming to be too close yet somehow still far away. If your on facebook PM me and i'll add you add a friend so you would be able to see my Cairns photo albums - if im alive to take any pics and dont get eaten by a croc within the first week of landing!

ABCDiamond

And some areas see very little extreme weather.

Athough having said that, the wind blew the cover of our BBQ the other week

Some areas are worse than others.

fish.01

Reports of the storms in Brisbane have to put in perspective. While not downplaying the severity of those affected it only affected part of Brisbane. We wouldn't have given it a thought if it wasn't on the news that night about people in suburbs like The Gap. And it was unusually fierce. My wife hated storms but she has been fine.

The same goes for the creepies. If you buy a modern house with screens and get it regularly treated you don't often have creepies inside. It really barely affects us. Maybe once you move the edge of the cities or into the bush you would notice more. I really wouldn't be too bothered.

Pollyana

AS a member of the emegency services who worked flat out the week that the storms hit The Gap and other parts of Brisbane, I agree it should be in perspective. However, its also worth noting that there are people who were made homeless by the storms that week, there are people who are still not back in their homes due to damage from tree, water, sewage etc, and there are many people who are and will suffer psychiatric problems as a result of waking in the middle of the night midweek to find that having survived the first storm the water was rising around them and they couldn't get out of their homes.
So yes, compared to the likes of Tropical Cyclone Larry, The Gap Microburst was very small. However as disaster operations go, it was still a major event and one requiring a huge recovery operation.

fish.01

Agreed. From far away though it appears to some people that Brisbane was washed away so want to reassure them.

ABCDiamond

For those people reading the news articles on the other side of the world, it would be handy if they were able to put things in a reasonably accurate perspective position.
I did hear that 300 homes were significantly damaged and 30 deemed unliveable. That is out of almost 500,000 homes in Brisbane. And that this was the worst in 30 years.

Therefore, people should be aware that:

1. It doesn't happen all the time
2. It doesn't 'severely' affect everyone
3. It could happen to you if you are unlucky

My dad rang me when he heard, and was surprised when I said "what storm". I think he had thought that all houses had been damaged.

I agree that for the areas that did get hit, it was very bad, especially the Gap area, but the News articles can make it seem a lot worse.

For example: "27 Feb 2008 ... THE Midlands was rocked by a huge earthquake which shook the UK today." quoted from Birmingham Mail.

Is it really that bad in the UK, that one earthquake shakes the whole UK ? That makes our storm seem quite little in comparison.
Real information rather than the newspapers version would be much better for people everywhere.

I dont know what was in the European Newspapers about the sharks recently, but I even had a call to see how bad they really are to the general poublic !!

Pollyana

Every time there's a shark attack in Perth my mum emails me to see if I'm ok........in spite of the fact she knows we live on the other side of the continent, nowhere near the Beach and as for spending the day there, I think The Bloke would rather cut his right arm off.

Pollyana

For anyone interested in being proactive in preparing for disasters, we have finally received approvals and been able to update our webpage for Community Safety. We now have various fact sheets and information available for download (and they're free!)
http://www.emergency.qld.gov.au/emq/css/beprepared.asp

There are also links to the Get Ready Kidnas! games which are designed to give children an idea about preparing for emergency situations, and Red Alert stories, which are by young people from places like Innisfail, telling of their own experiences.

If you click on the SEWS link, you can also hear the Standard Emergency Warning Signal, which is used to warn of approaching cyclones and other extreme weather.

Looking forward to Oz

Had an email from new boss saying that the media always make things seem worse than they are. in cairns the recent cyclone apparently caused 'a bit of localised flooding, nothing big and no major dramas'.

So the general feel that im getting is that severe weather happens and when it does be prepared, and by being prepared no dramas happen!...basically, its a part of life, get on with it and get over it.