Who'll Stop the Rain?

The other day I was talking to an Aussie who is interested in visiting America. He said, "If I go to the U.S. I have to see Hollywood, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Texas, Mexico, Nashville and Miami... is two weeks enough time to see all of that? I found this quite amusing. He has no idea just how large The United States is. This is not unusual because most of our American friends have no concept of how large Australia is either.

Here is a map of Australia in comparison to the United States. So, for the record, my American mates, you will not be able to go to The Great Barrier Reef, Sydney, Melbourne, Ayers Rock, Tasmania, Perth and visit us in Brisbane for any length of time in just two weeks! Even though Australia is a fair bit larger that the U.S.A... the population density of Australia is only 2.8 inhabitants per square kilometer, which is among the lowest in the world! Fair Dinkum! There are 22 million Australians total. The state I live in, California, has almost half again as many people than the WHOLE COUNTRY of Australia! (36,962,664) The population density is 234.4 per square mile about one hundred times that of Oz.

Just in case you are wondering, the total population for the U.S.A. is 307,006,550. (That's a lot of "Yanks.")

Where am I going with this? Basically, in either country you would have "Buckley's chance (no chance) of cramming all of that sightseeing into two power packed weeks. Plan on taking a few trips to either place... take your time and don't "be flat out like a lizard drinkin'!

Furthermore, all of you Aussies... don't "spit the dummy" (complain) about the traffic here in Oz. You haven't even seen traffic until you have visited L.A. Which leads me to the subject for my blog today. Most Australians have never seen snow but my fellow Californians you have never seen rain until you have visited Queensland in the rainy season! This month has been crazy and it's not even the "rainy season." Last month was even worse! When it rains here our driveway gets completely washed away. The rain is so heavy you cannot see two feet in front of your face. It just comes down in sheets. We all scramble around the house "like bees in a fit" placing buckets, pots, pans and whatever we can find under certain areas of the roof because sometimes it rains so hard that the roof just can't handle it. Bridges and roads get washed away in an instant. It fascinates me that even some Queenslanders still don't understand the power of water. When it rains like this... we just don't go out in it. Neither will any of our dogs so that creates another "mongrol" of problem we have to deal with!

Last month, based on records since 1900, Queensland had its wettest September on record. The state average rainfall was 75.98mm (breaking the previous record of 70.58mm set in 1906.) The highest monthly rainfall total was 612.8mm at Bellenden Ker Top Station. One night at my house it rained 189mm and that was in about five hours. I think that is about 10 inches in all!

Our neighbors gave us a housewarming gift when we arrived. It was quite unusual, probably something my American friends would never receive as a housewarming gift. It was a hurricane/cyclone kit! It contained candles, a flashlight, waterproof matches, a can opener, a radio, a little first aid kit, masking tape for the windows and a couple of cans of baked beans. (F.Y.I. The Aussies love their baked beans on toast.) This past year we have had four cyclone warnings. I can't imagine what the rain would be like if and when a cyclone does hit us here! Holy Dooley!

Since we live on the side of a cliff, when it rains on our property we get these incredible, rushing waterfalls almost like flash flood waterfalls. After the rain stops, our neighbor usually calls us and says, "Hey, let's go for a walk down the falls." A walk down our falls is a mind blowing experience. There is nothing that I can compare it to. But I hope it rains again soon...

Okay, so here's the good news. We rely solely on rainwater here at our house. We have two-10,000 gallon water tanks that we use for our house water and also for our irrigation. No thirty minute showers here, girls. So, it is bittersweet, we put up with the torrential rain for days and days and get sick of it but we don't have to worry about water for a long time, we get to go for a waterfall walk and when it rains too much we can even have a nice, long shower because our tanks are overflowing!

And... I would have to say that the rainbows in Australia are the most breathtaking I have ever seen! What do you think?