Torrential rains in Australia desert cause 30-year floods
By NICKY PHILLIPS
March 11, 2010
FOR most of the year Ethabuka Reserve, which abuts the Simpson desert in the far corner of western Queensland, is a dry, hostile place. But for the past week, since torrential rains fell across much of the middle of the state, the desert plains have looked more like an inland sea. The Bureau of Meteorology estimates that during the 10-day period ending on March 3, 403,000 gigalitres of rain fell across the Northern Territory and Queensland. ”To see such an immense amount of water was truly impressive,” said Max Tischler, an ecologist with the conservation group Bush Heritage, who flew over the flood plains yesterday. ”This is definitely going to breed life into the landscape.” The floods were probably a once-in-a-30-year event, he said. ”Talking to some of the people that have lived [in the area] all their life, they haven’t seen anything like it since the 1970s.” Ethabuka Reserve, a 213,300- hectare conservation property owned by Bush Heritage, is usually a wide expanse of spinifex grass and sand dunes, Mr Tischler said. The environment is so inhospitable that most of the resident mammals are small rodents. Some of the rivers in the area are dry 99 per cent of the time, he said. ”This is the arid zone. The average annual rainfall for the area is 130 millimetres.” …
