By: Liz Anderson and Lindsey Henneke

 Date:  Time:  Location: SE Australia; The Murrey-Darling basin  Significance: the southeast portion of the continent suffered from the most severe drought on record with runoff reductions exceeding 300- year return intervals. It occurred in the location of the continent’s only major river system, which is also the area where most of the nation’s food is produced.

 “Drought is a prolonged, abnormally dry period when the amount of available water is insufficient to meet our normal use. Drought is not simply low rainfall; if it was, much of inland Australia would be in almost perpetual drought. Because people use water in so many different ways, there is no universal definition of drought. Meteorologists monitor the extent and severity of drought in terms of rainfall deficiencies. Agriculturalists rate the impact on primary industries, hydrologists compare ground water levels, and sociologists define it by social expectations and perceptions.”

 Death Toll: 35 Why was their so little or so much loss of life?  There was so little loss of life over the span of time because a drought is long term and solutions can be found in wealthier continents such as Australia to prevent loss of life.

 Economic toll short term: Personal loss of property; cost of other sources of food production.  Economic toll long term: 3 billion committed by the government to purchase natural water.

 The drought is linked to high snowfall in southeast Antarctica, Global Warming, La Nina and El Nino. Causes for the Drought  The Murray River is dead and dying and there are imperatives to restore the ecological health of the Basin.  Flows of an additional ‘minimum 2000 GL’ out the Murray Mouth will result in a ‘healthy’ river.  The Murray Mouth, Lower Lakes and Coorong ecological problems have resulted in over extraction of waters from the Murray River.  The Murray Darling Basin waters are over allocated.  Re-plumbing the Basin can drought-proof the nation.  Returning water to the environment will give irrigation communities more certainty of water. (

 In regards to rainfall climates in the world, Australia has one of the most variable climates.  Long term, Australia has about 3 good years and 3 bad years in a period of 10 years.  The strongest cause for fluctuations in this climate is due to Southern Oscillation. It is a major air pressure shift between the Asian and east Pacific regions. It is also known as El Nino.

 Since 1965, the Australian Bureau’s Drought Watch has been important in managing national drought. This is based on a nationwide measuring network for rainfall and the severity of the drought.  There are two categories for rainfall deficiency and they are: Severe and Serious. Severe is given when the rainfall over a period of 3 months is in the lowest 5 percent of records. Serious is given when the rainfall is given in the next lowest 5 percent of historical records for a 3 month period.

 "It's actually like standing on edge of a cliff, the grass should be a couple of foot high, and green and lush. And as you can see, it's just brown and dust. I'm hopeful that this is a cycle. Because if it is, if this is like the climate change what they're talking about, it'll eventually make it unsustainable out here, whether you'd like it or not.”- Farmer Gary Hallam  "You've got to understand that there are people out in some parts of our state that have gone to work for four or five years and haven't even earned an income. And certainly in the last year, with the winter crop failing to the extent it did, there's been some massive losses, that combination on top of the drought and not earning any money, it is really hard on the emotions of people, there's no doubt about that.“- President of New South Wales Famers Federation, Jock Lawrie

 Extreme weather such as droughts can have a major impact on agriculture.  It can disrupt cropping programs, reduce breeding stock of animals, threaten permanent erosion of capital and resource bases of farming.  There are risks of environmental damage that can be serious, in terms of vegetation loss, soil erosion and long term issues of sustaining agricultural industries.  Outbreaks can occur in plants and animals, water quality can suffer and there is the issue of toxic algae.

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