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Aussies busy battling worst drought ever
Alan Goodall, The Japan Times
Summer has struck early, and already it's a vicious one. Half of Australia is suffering its worst drought on record. Oven-hot winds are sweeping fires through tinder-dry bush land toward the major cities. And that's just for starters.

True, the nation's economy is still riding high, but Federal Treasurer Peter Costello warns Australia could be heading into recession because of this freakish weather.
(19 Oct 2006)

Wheat harvest forecast slashed
ALAN GOODALL, Japan Times
Summer has struck early, and already it's a vicious one. Half of Australia is suffering its worst drought on record. Oven-hot winds are sweeping fires through tinder-dry bush land toward the major cities. And that's just for starters.

True, the nation's economy is still riding high, but Federal Treasurer Peter Costello warns Australia could be heading into recession because of this freakish weather.
(19 Oct 2006)
See more on global wheat prices at Bloomberg.

Australia: Plan to ship water
Daryl Passmore, Sunday Mail
A FLEET of supertankers shipping in hundreds of millions of litres of water every week could be the solution to the drought threatening Australia's cities.

Ambitious plans are being developed to ship desperately needed water to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from Tasmania, New Zealand or Papua New Guinea.
(15 Oct 2006)

Farmers told to move north 'where water is'
Anne Barker, Australian Broadcasting Corp
Australian farmers have been told to move to northern Australia, where most of the country's rain falls, in an effort to find a solution to the nation's drought concerns.

Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan has called for financial incentives to encourage farmers to move north, rather than find new sources of water in the south of the country.

"There's no question - climate change is a reality. We've got to take our farm to where the water is," he said.
(17 Oct 2006)

When all the rivers run dry
Selina Mitchell and Asa Wahlquist, The Australian
FARMERS across the country are watching their crops turn to dust, selling stock they can no longer afford to feed, and heading yet again to the banks to plead their cases as they suffer through what could be Australia's worst drought. Treasurer Peter Costello has warned of a rural recession and Prime Minister John Howard has promised his Government will do all it can to help farmers through this latest "hammer blow", including extending drought assistance.

Howard says when the bush suffers, all Australians feel their pain. But the emotional sympathy will be just part of that pain, as prices escalate for the food crops that manage to survive the hot, dry conditions. This week in Canberra politicians were briefed by scientists on the worsening drought, and were warned there is no end in sight to the dry conditions.

Murray-Darling Basin Commission head Wendy Craik told senators storages in the basin's three main dams would hit rock bottom by May next year if there was no substantial rain. "Basically we want to pray for rain."

Australia's greatest river system, and the people who depend on it, are on the verge of catastrophe. The Murray-Darling river system is in its sixth year of drought. Dam levels are lower at this time of year than ever before. Irrigators face the lowest-ever allocations, which will have dire consequences for the rice and dairy industries.

The mouth of the Murray has only been kept open for the past five years by constant dredging, and summer could bring destructively high levels of salinity to the lower lakes.
(14 Oct 2006)

Australian Farmers Driven to Suicide by Drought
Agencies, EgyptElection
Australia's worsening drought is driving farmers to suicide and government funds should be used to help them leave increasingly unviable land, scientists and politicans said.

The side effects of the worst drought in living memory include mental illness, depression and suicide in rural communities, said opposition Labor Party health spokeswoman Julia Gillard.

It had been estimated by the mental health organisation Beyond Blue that one Australian farmer commits suicide every four days, she said.
(18 Oct 2006)
Related: Drought brings even the hardest men to tears