Over the last two – five years, Australia has been experiencing a drought of such magnitude that the country’s entire ecosystem is being severely affected. Cattle and agricultural farmers across the continent are seeing their land turn to dust along with their livelihood. The Federal government is forcing local government to legislate laws imposing radical water restrictions and harsh penalties to those who use too much water.
A good example is the suburban dweller that is used to watering his garden every night after work. He now faces heavy fines if caught watering his garden more than twice a week and on specific days. One might think this a little harsh, that the government has turned fascist in their quest for total control over the masses, but unfortunately, the authorities have had to become draconian in their attempts to save Australia’s water supplies – the problem is that serious.
During times of crises, Australian’s are well known to band together and battle the problem, whether bush fires, floods, economic depression or war. Nothing has changed; most of the population are all too aware of the problem and have become conscious of how much water they are using. This is a very good sign; however, really, how bad is the problem?
Despite cattle ranches and numerous farms having to close down as a result of no rain, one forgets that the eco-system as a whole is affected.
What happens to our native wild animal population when the water dries up?
A somewhat unusual example:
This weekend saw the temperature rise (again) to 36 degrees centigrade. This has been one long hot summer, and most living things in the country are dead sick of the heat. To somehow escape the heat, and not use up precious energy by sitting under a blasting air-conditioner, my friend and I decided to pack a lunch and head for the hills…the Dandenong Ranges…a range of hills with dense forest to the East of Melbourne. In most cases, the temperature up there can be as much as two degrees cooler; so we headed out with picnic basket full of French bread, salami and cold apple juice.
We found a beautiful spot deep in the forest just outside the town of Olinda.
Getting out of the car, miraculously, dark clouds covered the sky and it almost felt like we were in a different country because the temperature was actually cool against the skin.
Laying our blanket down, we began to get stuck into lunch when, out of know where a Kookaburra swooped down and landed half a meter from us. Having lived in the Dandenong hills for ten years, it is not unusual for a Kookaburra to perch close to you, asking for a hand-out…but this was somehow different.
Suddenly the bird became aggressive, squawking at a high pitch, to give her our lunch…or else! My friend became really quite alarmed because the bird displayed such anger. The bird did look undernourished, thus out of sympathy, I threw her a piece of salami. She attacked the meat with alacrity and soon her mate, another seemingly undernourished Kookaburra, landed beside her, fighting her for the spoils. This was too much, wanting a quiet, cool afternoon meal, I raised my voice and stood up, where upon the birds flew to a near by branch, a lookout in the trees right over our picnic sight.
We continued with our lunch and conversation. Only minutes later, one of the birds swooped down, her wings actually brushing my face, took the sandwich out of my hands, returning to the lookout, sharing the booty with her cohort.
This behaviour for the Kookaburra, from my twenty year experience in the country and having lived with these birds for at least the last ten years, is unusual and alarmingly significant.
Why?
This aggressive behaviour is indicative of desperation and extreme hunger.
I began thinking that the drought has affected every living thing up and down the food chain, including the plant life… all creatures – the drought has actually upset our entire, highly fragile, ecosystem. Therefore, this begs the question, how big of an affect has the drought actually had, and have we really seen the extent of the true damage? In my opinion, we haven’t seen the entire damage wrought by this terrible lack of precipitation and extreme weather conditions over the past few years.
Too hot to think about the problem, we lay back and looked to the sky. The clouds above grew darker and suddenly spots of cold rain fell around us. There, directly above us, an opening in the clouds. As we lay on our backs looking up… small leaves appeared in the sky seemingly out of no where, falling, floating from afar and landing gently on our blanket on our faces along with the rain.
In only a few short minutes, those wondrous dark clouds blew to the south and the sun reappeared in all its glory.
We drove down the mountain to our hot little suburbs, worried, pondering and praying… for rain.
A good example is the suburban dweller that is used to watering his garden every night after work. He now faces heavy fines if caught watering his garden more than twice a week and on specific days. One might think this a little harsh, that the government has turned fascist in their quest for total control over the masses, but unfortunately, the authorities have had to become draconian in their attempts to save Australia’s water supplies – the problem is that serious.
During times of crises, Australian’s are well known to band together and battle the problem, whether bush fires, floods, economic depression or war. Nothing has changed; most of the population are all too aware of the problem and have become conscious of how much water they are using. This is a very good sign; however, really, how bad is the problem?
Despite cattle ranches and numerous farms having to close down as a result of no rain, one forgets that the eco-system as a whole is affected.
What happens to our native wild animal population when the water dries up?
A somewhat unusual example:
This weekend saw the temperature rise (again) to 36 degrees centigrade. This has been one long hot summer, and most living things in the country are dead sick of the heat. To somehow escape the heat, and not use up precious energy by sitting under a blasting air-conditioner, my friend and I decided to pack a lunch and head for the hills…the Dandenong Ranges…a range of hills with dense forest to the East of Melbourne. In most cases, the temperature up there can be as much as two degrees cooler; so we headed out with picnic basket full of French bread, salami and cold apple juice.
We found a beautiful spot deep in the forest just outside the town of Olinda.
Getting out of the car, miraculously, dark clouds covered the sky and it almost felt like we were in a different country because the temperature was actually cool against the skin.
Laying our blanket down, we began to get stuck into lunch when, out of know where a Kookaburra swooped down and landed half a meter from us. Having lived in the Dandenong hills for ten years, it is not unusual for a Kookaburra to perch close to you, asking for a hand-out…but this was somehow different.
Suddenly the bird became aggressive, squawking at a high pitch, to give her our lunch…or else! My friend became really quite alarmed because the bird displayed such anger. The bird did look undernourished, thus out of sympathy, I threw her a piece of salami. She attacked the meat with alacrity and soon her mate, another seemingly undernourished Kookaburra, landed beside her, fighting her for the spoils. This was too much, wanting a quiet, cool afternoon meal, I raised my voice and stood up, where upon the birds flew to a near by branch, a lookout in the trees right over our picnic sight.
We continued with our lunch and conversation. Only minutes later, one of the birds swooped down, her wings actually brushing my face, took the sandwich out of my hands, returning to the lookout, sharing the booty with her cohort.
This behaviour for the Kookaburra, from my twenty year experience in the country and having lived with these birds for at least the last ten years, is unusual and alarmingly significant.
Why?
This aggressive behaviour is indicative of desperation and extreme hunger.
I began thinking that the drought has affected every living thing up and down the food chain, including the plant life… all creatures – the drought has actually upset our entire, highly fragile, ecosystem. Therefore, this begs the question, how big of an affect has the drought actually had, and have we really seen the extent of the true damage? In my opinion, we haven’t seen the entire damage wrought by this terrible lack of precipitation and extreme weather conditions over the past few years.
Too hot to think about the problem, we lay back and looked to the sky. The clouds above grew darker and suddenly spots of cold rain fell around us. There, directly above us, an opening in the clouds. As we lay on our backs looking up… small leaves appeared in the sky seemingly out of no where, falling, floating from afar and landing gently on our blanket on our faces along with the rain.
In only a few short minutes, those wondrous dark clouds blew to the south and the sun reappeared in all its glory.
We drove down the mountain to our hot little suburbs, worried, pondering and praying… for rain.
1 comment:
I enjoyed this very much. Yes, the drought is terrible and affects every living thing. Every day we should all pray for rain. Meanwhile enjoy those picnics in the hills -- but-- watch out for the wild life!!
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