As I sit and write this Queensland, the State where I live is facing another declared Emergency. This time it is a Category 4 cyclone which has been given the name Hamish. The centre of Hamish is off the coast but it is already causing flooding and evacuations in the city of Mackay and in low lying Great Barrier reef Islands. You can read about Hamish here: http://www.bom.gov.au/weather/cyclone/ (click on ‘Details’). Hamish is still more than 1400kms north of the Gold Coast where I live but it is slowly tracking south.
Many people have been continuing to pray for the State of Victoria which suffered devastating bushfires in the past month. Just at 6.30 tonight , the CFA (Country Fire Authority) has given a “under control” message about the last fire which was giving concern. (http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/incidents/incident_updates.htm). Please continue to pray for those who lost loved ones, homes, their animals, and every possession in the fires.
Victorians had another problem last night when earthquake hitting 4.6 on the Richter Scale rocked a large area of the State. It was reported that rumbles continued into the morning with many residents feeling a jolt at about 10.15am. Geoscience Australia said two of the aftershocks hit 3.1 on the Richter Scale. A State Emergency services duty officer said the size of the earthquake was significant, but only minor damage to property, mainly hairline cracking in plaster and walls, had been reported.
He said there were dozens of calls for help from the SES late last night. "An earthquake measuring 4.6 is certainly enough that people will get a very strong feeling of the earthquake. People in part of Gippsland have reported shaking of buildings,'' (http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,25150188-2862,00.html).
I am not sure that there are any more weather updates to give. However, people in the far north of Queensland are still cut off from the rest of the world by floodwaters which first rose up to two months ago. Constant heavy monsoonal rain has kept the rivers and creeks running high na d the water is slowly making its way to the sea. The largest town, in the region. Karumba (population 600) relies on food coming by barge or by planes landing on a non-sealed airstrip. It bad weather of course none of this can happen. (see flood photos here: http://karumba.qld.au/wet-season-2009).
The huge loss in this area is that industry stops. The tourists can not get in and the one Motel in Karumba (called End of the Road Motel) has not had a paying customer since the last tourists left in the first week in January before the big wet. Karumba relies on its fleet of prawn trawklers but they have been unable to work. Other industries in the Gulf region includes mining and these miones are either under water or cut off from workers and supplies by flooded roads. The beef catlle industry is the oldest industry in the area and graziers do not know what their losses are. Fences and yards will be destroyed and it is estimated 100,000 cattle have drowned or died of starvation standing in water which came up to their sides. (http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/02/18/2494245.htm).
All the water which falls on the Gulf side of the mountains fows out into the Gulf. However, the water which falls on the other side of the mountains flows into a number of creeks and rivers and commences along, slow journey towards Lake eyre in the centre of Australia.
The first monsoonal rains in north Queensland came early in January and just last week the first of the waters reached Lake Eyre. Last week the Australian Newspaper described it like this:
The vast, salt-encrusted basin is the end of the line for the floods that have spread devastation across north and central Queensland, and now northern NSW, providing a poignant counterpoint to the misery unleashed on Victoria by the deadly Black Saturday bushfires.
Finally, yesterday, the flood spilled into Lake Eyre, a finger of greenish water shimmering in the heat haze against the vanilla shell of the dry lake bottom. …
Pelicans, gulls and terns have followed in such prodigious numbers they could be clouds in the bleached sky. Camels, drawn by the scent of open water, have come down from the Simpson Desert. Soon, Lake Eyre will live up to its name, spawning yellow-bellied fish and fingerlings for the birdsto feast on. The 9690sqkm basin, which at 15m below sealevel is the lowest point in Australia, has filled to brimming only three times since it was first sighted by Europeans 160 years ago, and it has been a very long time between drinks for locals waiting for this drought to break. (Jamie Walker The Australian February 25, 2009)
While there is excitement about the flood waters reaching Lake Eyre in quantities not seen since 2000, there is also some excitement along the rivers which have carried the floodwaters. It is probably more accurate to say attempted to carry the floodwaters. The rivers course through usually dry flat land. This accounts for the slow river flow but because the land is so flat, the rivers’ waters spill out beyond the river banks and in some places become kilometres wide.
In the tiny towns like Jundah and Windorah, flooding wil be experienced but as there has not been good rain for many years, graziers will welcome the flood waters which will bring their dry rain-less land to life once again.
( http://www.environment.gov.au/water/publications/environmental/rivers/lake-eyre/pubs/leb-map.pdfCentral-west)
Why all the excitement at Lake Eyre? It is really a huge saltpan and nothing grows there. Fish come down the rivers in the flood and when they reach Lake Eyre they spawn. During a drought and other dry periods fish tend to stop spawning and when it rains they start to breed again. Flooding is particularly important to the breeding pattern of many fish in the Lake Eyre Basin, including recreational species such as golden perch (yellowbelly).
The Lake Eyre Basin is a unique fisheries habitat, encompassing four states and about 1 300 000km2 or one-sixth of the land area of Australia. There was no permanent flowing water in any river in the basin and in small catchments river flows were relatively short, perhaps a few hours to a few days following rainfall.
Fish have adapted to suit these harsh conditions and most are effective at migrating and produce large numbers of eggs, often in response to the flooding. When it floods virtually every water body in the area connects helping fish to spread throughout the system.
This dramatic increase in fish numbers attract many species of waterbirds which inhabit or visit the Basin. Waterbirds also breed in large numbers in response to flooding and the food and habitats it provides. The explosion of bird life which follows the flooding of Lake Eyre fills the air with the sounds and sights of a great range of visiting waterbirds. Huge colonies of banded stilts are formed. Pelicans breed on the islands - protected from predators- in their hundreds of thousands One keen observer said he saw more than a million pelicans heading to Lake Eyre after one flood.. There are Caspian and Whiskered Terns, Cormorants and Avocets, and scavenging silver gulls.
The rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin are unique on a world scale. These flood plains when dry are very dry semi-arid deserts. The normally dry rivers are actually some of the largest internally draining river systems in the world, and it is also one of the world’s last unregulated wild river systems. As the slow moving flood spreads out across very flat land as it heads towards Lake Eyre, the dry sandy rivers change from chains of waterholes to slow moving 'inland seas' that are often many kilometres wide in big floods. They have extremely variable and unpredictable flows, and complex flow paths.
Lake Eyre is Australia's huge inland Sea. Normally this "sea" is a giant flat dry salt pan. The lake is largely inaccessible, generally surrounded by large sand dune fields. There are almost no access tracks, save for a couple on the southern shores, no permanent habitation, and no water. Lake Eyre itself is about 65 kms west to east and some 130 kms north to south equating to approx 8450 sq kms. The smaller Lake Eyre South has an area of some 1250 sq kms. Lake Eyre is the lowest point in Australia - some 5 - 15 metres below sea level. Normally it is dry and lifeless. In 1964 Englishman Donald Campbell broke the world land speed record in 'Bluebird' at a speed of close to 650 kph, on the dry saltbed of Lake Eyre. The climate of the lake is characterised by hot summers with average maxima in excess of 55c/125f, little rainfall - under 120mm, and an evaporation rate of 2000mm per annum
Every few years extraordinary rainfall events occur, especially monsoonal events (including cyclones/hurricanes) during summer on the Great Divide and in Northern Queensland, a couple of thousand kilometres north of Lake Eyre. Then slowly, the great rivers - the Diamantina, Georgina and Cooper discharge huge amounts of water into the Lake. The slow moving flood waters are first devoured by the dry sands of the desert, but provided enough rain occurs - the water will end up in Lake Eyre. It can take weeks and often months for these slow moving floods to reach Lake Eyre.
The aquatic and avian fauna commence a frenzied breeding cycle. Then when the lake dries out, these opportunists depart, depending on their tolerance of salinity and lack of water, and the lake gradually returns to its dry state. Partial filling of the lake are recorded every couple of years.
Within weeks of this happening, the lake becomes alive. From virtually no life comes a miracle - insects, lizards, fish by the millions and many, many birds by the hundreds of thousands.
How do the birds know there is water here now? Where do the fish come from, what do the fish eat? Many questions, but what a sight to see - much greenery, the birds - pelicans, seagulls, (seagulls in the desert!!) cormorants, terns, swans etc.
How do these birds which live out most of their lives maybe a thousand, maybe two kilometres away, know Lake Eyre will fill? How can they time their visit so that the breeding fish will be plentiful enough to sustain hundreds of thousands of breeding waterbirds and their chicks?
Scientists seek to understand what is happening and how but it is in God’s wonderful plan of nature.
Jesus observed nature around him and suggested people should look at it to learn lessons for their life.
He says:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6: 25-34. NIV).
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
30And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10; 29-31 NIV).
Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come,
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
I sing because I’m happy,
I sing because I’m free,
For His eye is on the sparrow,
And I know He watches me.
“Let not your heart be troubled,” His tender word I hear,
And resting on His goodness, I lose my doubts and fears;
Though by the path He leadeth, but one step I may see;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise,
When songs give place to sighing, when hope within me dies,
I draw the closer to Him, from care He sets me free;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.
Civilla D. Martin, 1905.
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