Torrential rain a 'mixed blessing' for Australia

[depakid]

As torrential rain continues to fall across parts of Australia, the rivers, lakes and estuaries from the far north to the back of Bourke are about to spring to life.


Lake Eyre
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Some of the rain that has caused floods in parts of New South Wales will flow out to sea. But the water that has inundated Queensland will slowly make its way south to the normally dry salt plain of Lake Eyre.

The parched Murray-Darling Basin, though, is unlikely to benefit at all.

The rain that has been pounding northern Australia over the past month and the east coast of New South Wales this week tells a story of this country's very particular topography.

Richard Kingsford, is a professor of Environmental Science at the University of New South Wales. "If we look at north Queensland to begin with, basically there are those rivers that run north into the Gulf of Carpentaria and that's where we've got a lot of flooding around Karumba and Normanton," he said.

"If then you move south into the catchment where the rivers basically run inland, the rivers of the Georgina, Diamantina and then Coopers Creek, all of those rivers eventually will make it into Lake Eyre if there's a really big flood."

Professor Kingsford says the flooding of the delta system in the Gulf of Carpentaria is a mixed blessing.

"Obviously these floods can cause incredible damage in terms of stock losses and so on, which is what we're seeing up there, but you do also rejuvenate some of these river systems," he said. "So we'd expect a flush of productivity in terms of the vegetation and that will help with fish and water birds and all of those things that are part and parcel of the cycle of river system."


...further west, the bone dry salt plain of Lake Eyre is set to bloom.

"It's one of those really exciting questions about flood, will it be in Lake Eyre?" he said.

"The maxim out there is that every flood is different because it depends on what's happened previously, how dry some of these wetland areas are, and how much rain has actually fallen and flowing down these systems.

"But over the next few months, particularly through the tourism season, which is obviously the winter, it'll be a tremendous part of the world, and these systems just thrive on floods, and when they come, you get this tremendous reaction from the environment in terms of the plants, and the flowers come out, but also the biodiversity, is almost an exponential increase.

"Not just in about the ones that are dependent on water like the frogs, water birds and the fish, and so on, but also you get a lot of honey eaters coming in because it's so productive, you get birds of prey like wedge tailed eagles and whistling kites, and even some of the small mammals absolutely capitalise on these boom periods."

More: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/18/2495001.htm

[msongs]

1. there is a PBS show all about the flooding of the central dry plain - episode of NATURE I think nt

[MrModerate]

2. Fires to the south of us, floods to the north . . .

I tell you, this place is EXTREME!

Before I came to Australia I had a picture of the place in my mind that was clearly shaped by watching too many Paul Hogan movies (too many = 1) -- the sere Outback, sun, scrub, Uluru, dusty kangaroos.

Now that I'm here, I find the place where I live (Brisbane) is actually a rainforest (at least where they haven't paved it over), and further north it's a frakkin' jungle plus plus.

Sure, the center of the country's a moonscape (as advertised), but the variation in climates along the east coast (and to a lesser degree, the west) is radical. Just about every sort of ecosystem you'd care to mention, except frozen.

They don't do "frozen" around here. (1)

Nevertheless, I love it.

(1) To be accurate, there are some ski areas down south, but pretty lame if you've ever been to the US Rockies, Maine, Canada, Swiss Alps, etc., etc.

[depakid]

3. Australia fair?

One thing I'll say and have said as an Oregonian:

Damn- the roads down here could use a little work!

LOL.

ps: There's a bit of killer skiing, though you'll have to catch a flight to NZ:

[MrModerate]

4. Going next season without fail . . .

Gonna do the "Lord of the Rings filmed here" excursion as well.