Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Yes - Australia is in the biggest draught ever (i'm told - I've only been in the country since 1981 tho).
When I first came here there seemed to always be a small storm in the afternoons or at night to cool things down. I remember there was an infamous pommy couple who kept whining about it raining every weekend and sunny during the working week - they were national news!
But it was true! every bloody weekend. Times have changed

Does the drought go back many years?

I heard about an el nino(sp?) drought back in 2001(?)? Has that been a continuous problem since then?

Is it all of Australia?

So, can a well be dug successfully? Or is there a reachable water table?

Us engineers are a curious breed.

We get about 35" of rain a year here and wells are always working well(no pun intended). This made me consider what I would do if water was scarce. AP, of course. But it is a problem one might not be able to solve on ones own property. I really hate being helpless. I sure hope the drought breaks there soon!

thats bad i thing barbados is too small for a drought wish you all the best

Some areas of the country are in drought (large areas certainly), but at the same time there are areas of the north of Australia that are going through the regular monsoon season with it's various flood events (we got 24mm rain last night)

Doug over the last 5 years almost the entire Australian continent has been receiving below average rainfall... in fact at times 98% of Australia has been officially "drought declared" and we have been in an "el nino" state since 2001 as you say.

It has been said that this is the worst drought in 100 years...or since records have been kept....

Many major river systems are either almost dry or have stopped flowing...
Main drinking water supply dams are averaging less than 35% of normal capacity with some town supplies like Goulburn down to pumping dust at levels of < 10%.

However there is a growing body of evidence that while this may be the worst drought in recorded history, in may indeed be that in fact the recorded history may have been coincidentally slanted since recordings have been kept and that in fact the last 100 years have been an unusually wet period and that what we have seen over the last 5 - 10 years is actually more the norm for Australia.

All indications are (primarily the Southern Oscillation Index and sea temperature reading) that the "el nino" effect has either passed or is in a state of rapid decline....

As Jaymie says, this years monsoonal rains and pattern are distinctly different from past recent years and have been feeding rains not only to Far North Queensland (where Jaymie is) but into drought affected areas of NSW, SA and south western Qld.

The absence of any real cyclone activity this year and the extent that jet stream "monsoonal" rains have pushed down into lower latitudes are all indications of more "normal" weather patterns.

However, it would be necessary for these patterns to persist for the next 2-3 years in order to "break" the drought and replenish dam/river levels/flows and underground reservoirs ....

The first real indications of a persistant change of pattern will be whether or not the farm belts receive their winter and early spring rains...

If I was a betting man I'd say "Yes" and predict a bumper wheat crop next year....

Could be wrong though ... I hope not

I am with you ROZ the caves around here are filling up with ground water, so I have been told.(300+ caves of note in the area)
so I am also tipping more rain than last year.
Not that we have ever had a drought or been declared drought ravaged, though our rain has been way down on 'normal'.
we have had floods, though that was some time back.
For those who don't know the part of the country we are in the south west of Oz.

damned statisticians

fair point roz, we may have just happed to settle this fair country in an unseasonaly wet couple of hundred years LOL wouldn't that be ironic?

C1, thats the opposite to what a tour guide told us for one of the caves we went down..cant for the life of me remember the bloody name (your area) apparently there was an underground lake in there before 1995 but the water table has been dropping and its been dry since 95ish. Use to be a few meters deep.

My wife's family is from South Dakota, so we hear from relatives there. We also traveled thru the Canadian wheat/corn/canola belt. The last three years have been low rain averages and many crops have been lost.

There are hot words exchanged about irrigation and who gets the water. The water is all controlled by the government and distributed way below costs. More and more are using it to make money on crops. Now there is a shortage and no free market to raise prices to control use. So those that get it way below what it should cost, spray it into the air with sprinklers and loss half to evap! Another example of where free enterprise would be raising the cost of a limited commodity and forcing users to conserve!!

DAMN, I will step off the soap box now and cool down.

There are similar debates occurring here in OZ about water quotas, water rights, allocations and demands of upstream irrigators etc...

The most bizzare thing is the major upstream irrigators and license holders are the "cotton" farmers...

Like you'd grow cotton in a sunburnt country .... Duh

And wonder why the downstream flows are halved .... duh

DB, you're right in the middle of the biggest freshwater supply for the whole country (something like 90%) - you should start selling it for $ now!

Dave, since I was in High School(and the indians roamed Michigan) , there has been a Great Lakes Council talking about using canals to take our lake water to Southwestern States for irrigation. That has been 45 years of talk. Someday they may slip it by...I hope not. The Great Lakes have already dropped from overuse and draining thru the locks to the ocean. We have taken hits from ocean going vessels bringing in non-native species(like lampray eels and zebra mussels) and whirling disease to the native fish. If they ever send it out west, then my well may go dry.

Doug have a read of something called the Bradfield Plan, to divert the rivers of northern Queensland inland and down to Victoria (that one has been kicking around for about 70 years )

Week 11.
pH 6.35. still dropping - added two handfulls of dolomite this time.
Nitrates 30 - 40 ppm. These colour charts are hard to read
Fish 10-15cm

Biggest eggplant fruit now 10cm. The ap plant is now much bigger then the soil-planted one and the fruit has overtaken it in size. (soil fruit was doing better to start with). Also got more buds on it.
Verdict - eggplants like ap!

The "wet" season seems to be over - haven't had a drop of rain for a while and in this heat things get brown quickly.
It always amazes me how averse to water the soil around here is. You can hose the garden bed for half an hour (tank water of course!). Then stick you finger in the ground and it is bone dry 10mm below the surface.

It is not that hard Jaymie. If you lift the North end of Queensland up, the rivers will run South. No use pouring all that fresh water in the oceans when you need it inland. I imagine the politicians could pass a law to lift the North end of oz for a more convenient flow direction.

its funny you should say that doug cause there has been qute a bit of talk of diverting a few rivers up there to feed the masses further south

but i doubt it will ever happen