Victorian Fires and Queensland floods.

Well this last week or so has seen the extremes of the Australian climate.

Over the last 4 weeks up here in NQ we have seen our beloved Cape and surrounds turned into an inland sea - residents of Normanton have been unable to get out of their town for nearly five weeks and have had to depend on food drops (from helicopters in some instances) to survive, but the old Queenslander spirit has kicked in - we are all survivors. AND then the rains swamped poor INGHAM - under water for a week, to emerge again and then be flooded again for another week. Even had a croc walk up the main drag. (ONLY IN NQ). Of course all these road closures affected us up here in the north as trucks loaded with all sorts of goodies (including our food supply) were stranded before the flood waters and had to sit for 6 days before the convoy headed north once again. It got so desperate up here that the Supermarkets (Woolies and Coles) were bringing in supplies on Barges. Unfortunately some of it was not too fresh when it got to the shelves. Even bread was in short supply as there was no flour.

Melissa went to shop today and said that the shelves are still quite bare - more panic shopping I think - more rain is forecast.

BUT then you get the reverse cycle in Victoria - blazing hot and the worst bushfires in our history. The death toll so far is 181 and still rising as there are still a lot of people missing. Some towns completely wiped off the map - places I visited frequently as a child for family picnics - I can't help thinking of all the native animals that have perished. Marysville (which is no longer) was famous for its Lyrebird population. So very very sad. The fires are still burning a week later - they (Country Fire Authority and Volunteers) are working on containment lines to stop the two main fires converging into one massive fire. I hope they are successful as next week they are expecting very high temps again. The week before last they were averaging 40 to 47 degrees (about 116 in the old measures). Give me the humidity up here any day.

A couple of pieces I have scrapped over the last week or so are included :

My April calendar page (Williams and Justines birthdays.

A clock which I love featuring the boys as they are today.

Until next time.