Australia… the land of…

This January, Australia has shown us her harsh beauty in full force. Never before did the words of Dorothy MacKellar ring so true. 

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! 

From fires. 

To Drought. 

To Tornados. 

To Floods. 

It's been a highly stressful month to be living in our Sunny Queensland. 

The Island fires were burning out of control about 8klm (as the crow flies) and we faced day after day of grey smoke, wreaking havoc upon our sinus cavities. This particular Thursday the sky glowed orange (photo taken at 11am) and we locked ourselves away as the ash rained down.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been finding fully burnt out leaves scattered across our back yard as we prayed for rain to ease the fires. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Days later we lamented the dry ground. As leaves and golden brown grass crunched under our feet, we took photos of a previously lush lawn dying away, the only green patches where our bicycle hose pumped out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new turf has faltered but it hung in there as the rest of the lawn died around it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weekend just gone, we received Watch and Act texts two nights in a row from the council. Awakening to confirmed reports of tornado-like winds on the island was indeed scary! The wind and rain that followed didn't stop for about 36 hours - it eased back to about half the strength during this time, but we spent a couple of sleepless nights listening to the howling wind and branches hitting the walls. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The power went out for 13 hours - goodbye all cold stuffs from the fridge and freezer. Mobile service has been patchy at best and our phone lines are STILL down. Last night was the last straw when I lost all internet contact!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School was supposed to start back today but it was a forced close due to no power being on. Tomorrow is the same story unless by some miraculous marvel the power is restored overnight. And we've had almost 2 full days of blue skies here & no flooding - such is the magnitude of this storm that near swept us away! There are many facing yet another night of no power, running on generators. I really feel for those without power. Again we have been lucky, but I have to admit we shat our pants for a while there. It was by far the scariest storm we've both endured in nearly 40 years. But oh so lucky. 

Australia really is a Sunburnt country!