A Harsh Land

December 10, 2006  FILED TO: Miscellaneous

Victoria (the state in which I live, that is) is having a bad year. After a record dry winter, an unseasonably dry October, followed by a few very wet November days (which fueled the growth of long grasses), we are not only facing a long, hot summer but a summer of crises: drought and bushfire.

Water storages are at record lows and we are faced with the scary thought of consuming water from catchments in which the water level is for the first time approaching the sediment layer – which harbours and encases many toxic chemicals. Urban Melbourne is currently on Stage 2 water restrictions (on a four-stage plan), but many Victorian towns have been on Stage 4 restrictions for months (and some level of restriction for years) and some even have water brought in from other towns. Crops are languishing and I’ve heard reports from inside sources – you won’t hear this in the news – of at least one suicide a day from farmers who can no longer suffer the pressure. I won’t go into what the government is doing to help these people or plan for the future, but in short it’s not enough. I’m not ready to blame climate change for the current water crisis – it’s an infrastructure problem (I will stretch it to say that I think the government has for too long been distracted by affairs outside our wide, brown land).

The immediate crisis is a stretch of 11 very large bushfires in the state’s southeast which have already burned through over 200,000 hectares, casting a thick pall of smoke over the city (over 200 kilometers away) and even further west. A recent string of very hot, very dry days and nights and a hot northerly wind has turned the bushland into a giant tinder box. And it’s not even Christmas yet. There is also now a series of grass fires in the west, about 80 kilometres from the city, some (or perhaps) all of which were started intentionally. Not as a back-burning exercise (which would be futile in this weather) but by “firebugs”.

Living in the city, it’s usually hard to imagine the heat, the fear and the exhaustion of those fighting the fires, or attempting to save houses in danger. However, with the water shortages at our doorstep, the smoke choking us whenever we walk outside – to the extent that fire alarms have been triggered in some city buildings, we can’t escape the realities of this harsh country.

Spare a thought this summer for the Victorian firefighters, farmers, and people who have lost their homes, their crops, their livelihood. And pray for a wet autumn.