Catastrophes in Australia

The fire in Australian bush
In the years 1982 and 1983 there was a catastrophe dry weather in Australia. Hundreds of square kilometers of woods and grazing land were dry.
In February 1983 was set a fire. Probably it was set by a cigarette. It was near Melbourne. The whole forest was soon in fire. Flames encircled Melbourne from three sides. Macedon (a city near Melbourne) burnt because all the houses were made of wood.
Before the fire stopped it killed 75 people and burnt 3 300 square kilometers of forests with trees and farms.

The cyclone in Darwin
It was in the year 1974 in the capital city of Northern territory. Inhabitants of Darwin were just celebrating Christmas. The cyclone was above Arafur Sea. On the 24th December it deflected in the east and speeded up. After midnight it arrived to Darwin. Just before 1 a.m. was the bigger part of the town without electricity and water.
Aircrafts on the airport were overturned by wind, which speed was 211 km/h.
On the morning 25th December was whole town destroyed. Practically everybody was suddenly without home. Although there were big damages, it was great luck, that it killed only 49 people.
Whole town had to be evacuated just to renew it. It was about 40 thousand people.

Now is the situation different. Satellites which continuously watch the weather on whole Earth are able to warn people from the danger territory. It is usually do by regional TV and radio. A special service can predict coming hurricane 24 hours before it comes.

The dry weather in Australia
Australian farmers are used to extreme weather. But in year 1990 came to Queensland very dry weather. Farmers hoped it would soon end, but it didn’t. The sky was still blue, the sun was shining and there was no rain.
Four years later was in Queensland and its neighbor – New South Wales still the worst dry in the last hundred years.
The farming was so damaged that the wheat had to be imported there. It was for the second time since the colonization. The crop of cotton in year the 1994 was only half of the crop from the year 1992.
Millions of sheep had to be killed because there wasn’t enough water for them. Hundred of farmers’ families had to leave their farms and tried to find job in towns. Lots of them were in debt.

There were also extreme dry weathers before it. It was in the years 1982 and 1983. Australians called it “The big dry”. For two years it didn’t rain. But when the rain came, it was very strong and it made the biggest flood in that decade.

Rabbits in Australia
Rabbits aren’t original inhabitants of this continent. There were no rabbits until the year 1859. But this year one farmer brought here 24 wild rabbits from England. He didn’t know that he had made a catastrophe for farmers.
Rabbits didn’t have natural enemies in Australia so they started to multiply. A few years later it started to be a serious problem. Rabbits ate all the harvest, damaged small plants, and damaged riversides by raking up their holes.
In the year 1950 there was a new method invited to limit the rabbit’s population. The illness myxomatoze was brought to Australia. Another name for this illness is “the rabbit plague”, which kills rabbits.
Rabbits were infected by mosquitoes. It broadened soon and 80 % rabbit dead.