Water, water everywhere / by Mario Mirabile

Australia is generally seen as a hot, dry continent.This is certainly true of the vast interior, but the climate varies quite dramatically. The far north  has a tropical monsoon climate, while the far south is quite temperate. We have wide variations, but on the whole we're not subjected to the wild extremes of heat and frigid cold seen in similar latitudes in the large continental land masses of the Northern Hemisphere.

The south east corner of the continent is, perhaps, the most moderate, as the concentration of population in this part of the country attests. We've had our droughts and dust storms in recent years, and our use of water was severely restricted as recently as five years ago. But for the time being at least, the creeks are flowing and the storages are nearly full. Nevertheless, we shouldn't take this relative abundance for granted - the next drought could be just around the corner.