Meanwhile...back in Australia

[RAAF Spitfire Girl]

Cuteness alert!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-07-18/c ... n/10007978

Very, very cute

[CaptWilks]

What a sweetheart!

https://www.magnt.net.au/sweetheart-crocodile

As people say, only in the Territory.

[Kismet]

That's a great story!

[kylie_koyote]

Wow! That's enormous!

[CaptWilks]

Wow! That's enormous!

Yes, stand next to it in the museum and you will understand why in "man v croc", the croc wins. Inexperienced people have no idea how fast these huge beasts can move. Fortunately, large ones are removed from the harbour and areas around the city but that is "removed when they are seen".

[kylie_koyote]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/30/australi ... index.html

The headline made me laugh, although the situation is certainly no laughing matter! Poor things.

[RAAF Spitfire Girl]

It's a good article, k_k. Thanks for sharing. I think the seriousness of the drought is only just starting to catch the nation's attention. My heart just bleeds for our farmers and graziers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/drought/

[Spitfire666]

It's a good article, k_k. Thanks for sharing. I think the seriousness of the drought is only just starting to catch the nation's attention. My heart just bleeds for our farmers and graziers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/drought/

This is really dreadfull. I remember a picture showing that in our last big heatwave (1976) just the UK was affected, but this time almost the whole globe was coloured red.

[OzBiggles1963]

It's a good article, k_k. Thanks for sharing. I think the seriousness of the drought is only just starting to catch the nation's attention. My heart just bleeds for our farmers and graziers.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/drought/

Yes, the drought is a shocking thing, & some are even wondering if the devastation of the lands where grass has always grown is going to be a permanent situation. Very dire for those dedicated families living on the land, who have provided food to Australians for generations.

[Kismet]

A very sad situation for all involved.

[CaptWilks]

Dorothea MacKeller:

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!

Australia has always been variable, away from the moderating influence of the coast.

[CaptWilks]

Core of my heart, my country!
Her pitiless blue sky,
When, sick at heart, around us
We see the cattle die
But then the grey clouds gather,
And we can bless again
The drumming of an army,
The steady soaking rain.

Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the rainbow gold,
For flood and fire and famine
She pays us back threefold.
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze ...

An opal-hearted country,
A wilful, lavish land
All you who have not loved her,
You will not understand
though Earth holds many splendours,
Wherever I may die,
I know to what brown country
My homing thoughts will fly.

[Spitfire666]

Thanks CaptWilks, these are lovely.

[CaptWilks]

I left off the first verse,I think.

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-country/

I do like it, a lot.

It really captures the Australian landscape better than anything else I have read.

"An opal-hearted country,"

That's wonderful because opals are only found in the desert in the centre of Australia.

[Tracer]

Superb.

[Wanderer]

Its one of the most iconic Australian poems, yet most people only recall the second verse.

[Sizzling Sausages]

Yep - the drought has made the cliché the reality.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/nation ... 4zy4o.html

[kylie_koyote]

Yep - the drought has made the cliché the reality.
https://www.canberratimes.com.au/nation ... 4zy4o.html

Wow that’s a LOT of kangaroos!

[Kismet]

Like the clip.