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Hi all,

I have been watching this thread for a while now and just have to thow in my two cents about the misconception that the whole of Australia is drought affected.

While it is true that large portions of the country are experiencing severe drought conditions with little sign of relief, that is not the case for other parts of the country.

The tropical regions of Australia have over the last few years received above average rainfall (in some areas bordering on record levels) and are not considered to be drought affected.

Another area of particular interest is the central desert region where Lake Ayre(sp?), which is normally a salt pan, has recently been tranformed into a flourishing oasis.

In the Alice Springs region there is a saying among the locals that "you can not call yourself a local until you've seen the Todd (River) flow 3 times!" - the Todd river has flowed and burst its banks 4 times in the last 12 months alone. (there's an awful lot of newcomers who can now consider themselves to be locals!)

I don't in any way want to trivialise the effect that the drought is having on this country, or its effect on those living with the drought conditions and water restrictions, I just wanted to point out that Australia is a very large land mass and not all of it has been affected by this drought.

G_T

Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic.

The rain should be coming back soon as we are finally out of EL Nino. We should get closer to average rainfall this year.

Yes Frank, we're almost onto sponge baths, a four minute shower makes it very hard to get everything done when you're a girl

And it's about to get sooo much harder with winter coming up! Nothing nicer than just standing in a hot shower when it's cold, especially in the morning when you're procrastinating going to work. Will make it especially hard to use my turning-water-off-while-shampooing-or-shaving method. Lucky we have heat lamps in the bathroom, but they use a lot of electricity too.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

JB you're going to love all the extra water when you're in the UK , get your fill of the blue sky now though .

Electricity consumption isn't just a worry as far as the environment is concerned, but here in OZ at least it consumes a lot of the water as well.

Another difference is that many of the houses here arent insulated, and most of them don't have heating.

^_^

Another difference is that many of the houses here arent insulated, and most of them don't have heating

"Here" means queensland. A state up north (remember the further nth one goes the closer to the equator so the warmer it is). Australia covers a lot of areas; temperate, tropical, arid.

I agree in the 'cold' areas still no central heating - something we associate with snowy climes. Perhaps if it became the norm to insulate against cold the power consumption would be a whole lot less . Roll on Earth Hour.... every month! Insulation often in the form of 'bats' in the ceilings or lining gyprock walls (dry walls). But for a majority keepig cool is more of a concern.... HOT goes on for so much longer than cold in a lot of places.

My friend moved to Sydney (temperate) from Darwin (tropics) and is keeping (with the appropriate licenses) green tree frogs as they remind her of her home in the tropics. They are adorable

Babel's right. Hydroelectricity.... there's gotta be a better way (not oriented to Lucas Heights)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

ug.

I mapped out the immediate fallout zone for Lucas Hts a few years back, it covers almost all of the Sydney area. That was for when it was just research and medical stuff, that didn't even include whatever they opened recently there.

I wouldn't have too much of a problem with nuclear power if A) we knew how to make the waste inert and B) if humans weren't so short-sighted and silly at times. Once we get past those, I'll happily shift over.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Even in Sydney, the hot lasts longer than the cold - but we do have insulation bats in all our external walls & ceilings. Central heating - that's different to air conditioning, right? Air conditioning is common enough in Sydney. We don't have it, but hubby wants to get it - but I'm not really that fussed about it.

My Brissy friend always told me that a lot of the older Brisbane homes were built in the "Queenslander" style - meaning built up on stilts (the underneath sometimes being completly open or maybe they put the laundry, garage and/or rumpus there. They built that style to catch the breeze & to keep the homes cooler. So definitely, the focus was on keeping cool and not so much worry about heating. I think the style might now be not much used anymore.

As far as Lucas Heights goes, well unfortunately, I'm just around the corner (Menai). But like Callatya says, the fallout zone covers just about all of Sydney & I might prefer to be wiped out at once, rather than linger on with some ill effect from having a "slight" exposure in the case of some catastrophe.

Cheers
TW

Lucas Heights ??? Fill me in guys I'm guessing it's similar to Peach Bottom or Chernoble.

When I mentioned insulation it'd be for cooling as well as heating.

And Bats?????

Brisbane got 6mm of rain this morning

For some reason I have the home icecream jingle in my head.

^_^

Bradford Batts= ceiling insulation

Googled it and couldn't find a generic name for them. Bradford was the best known brand when I was growing up.

For a local persepctive on weatherproofing for our local conditions. Bunnings seem to think insulation and sealing gaps should weatherproof things so that only a space heater is needed to heat a home.


"Conserve your energy and make the most of heating and cooling with insulation"

"Insulation can help you make your home energy efficient. ...up to 5 degrees C warmer in the winter and 10 degrees C cooler in the summer...!
Tips ...try these tips on top of using insulation.

* Change your thermostat by one degree and make a big difference
* Seal up gaps
* Close blinds and curtains
* Open your windows in summer and close them in winter" <=== duh! wish I thought o' that!

source: http://www.bunnings.com.au/diy/278/Save_Energy.aspx

I am not endorsing Bunnings opinions/products - mods remove if this compromises the FP site.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~ My fish blow kisses at me all day long ~~~

Bradford Batts= ceiling insulation

Even better results if used in external walls of brick veneer homes, as well as in the ceiling - but this can only be done at the time of construction - whereas you can add bats to the roof at anytime.

Keeps the house cooler in summer & warmer in winter.

Here's a link to the website for Lucas Heights http://www.anawa.org.au/nsw/lucas-heights.html

Yippee, yahoo for rain in Brisbane Did any fall in the catchment areas?

Cheers
TW