The more we are into Summer, the further we are into the BUSH FIRE season. This is Earth’s hottest, driest continent and it is getting hotter and drier. When it does rain, Instead of gentle rains, we not have long periods of virtual deluges and widespread flooding. The weather, and therefore the country, is much changed from the days of my youth. Dorothea Mackellar’s poem, My Country, has well expressed our feeling for the land Down Under:
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me
With climate change the shift is more to terror, the terror of widespread and truly horrifying fires. The pervasive bush, mostly comprised of beloved gum trees whose leaves contain volatile eucalyptus oil, becomes tinder dry and laden with heavy, very flammable underbrush. Climate change has also made more likely strong summer winds and these can transform once controllable fires into fast spreading maelstroms.
Australia is a Commonwealth and much much responsibility relating to the general wellbeing of the country is allocated to the Federal government. Lots of research has been done about the causes of these large fires, how they develop, why some homes survive, and how best to combat them. In the partnership between the Federal and the State governments, the result is much more local regulation about where and how homes may be built. Outside of the cities (where the professional fire brigades are located), fire defense and control is in the hands of volunteer units united under Emergency Fire Services organization. These are organized under a regional and state structure. Citizens train to control and fight fires in all rural areas, called out as unpaid volunteers as crises arise. This not only ensures high local investment in fire safety but also rapid response. This is a cost effective approach and means that money spent on firefighting is targeted to equipment and training. Even so, the onset of Summer is a time of mounting anxiety general, even in the cities, and when a fire erupts, of real terror.
Just now, hundreds of fires rage across the continent, many uncontrolled as yet. In a week or so, when I drive to Sydney, I need to be careful to plot a route that avoids possible danger areas. My daughter and her family are presently in Canberra and due to drive back in a day or two. Many fires now bracket the route they had planned but, with some weather relief in sight, it should be OK.
Adelaide, where I am now, is the capital of the driest state. As I may have said in earlier posts, the central city area is one mile square and surrounded by parklands, as you could see should you use Google/Maps. As I have already written, it is a most charming city, situated between hills to the East and the long gulf to the West. There are many sporting venues dotted through these parkland (cricket, football, basketball, tennis, swimming pools, bowls, croquet, and so on) as well a zoo, extensive botanical gardens, and large cemetery (joke: where is the ‘dead centre’ of Adelaide?). Even so, large open tracts remain and much work is in progress to return these to their natural state. Many miles of bicycle trails afford pleasant rides.
Tucked away in one corner, between the light rail line linking the city to one of the numerous beaches and the southern city limit, are most pleasant gardens through which I often wander on my morning walks. There are lots of shade and many pleasant nooks, many with small fountains. Here are some photos from my most recent excursion.
At left, as you can see, my sojourn in Adelaide has reduced me to a ghost of my former self!
Use of a small stream
and shady nook.
This is 'it' for Adelaide. I hope that some of you will be able to visit some day.
If from North America, make sure your sojourn justifies the long flight. Of course, at least five of my North American readers have not only visited but also lived here.
No doubt, they will correct my errors and gross exaggerations! Or at least forgive them.
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