Australia’s weather continues to be a roller coaster ride with the southern states of the country looking at ways to combat a water shortage resulting  from the ten year drought whilst the north eastern peninsula of Queensland and northern parts of New South Wales including Sydney are being inundated with torrential rains and flooding. Warnings for a ‘Flood Watch’ from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology have also been issued for some of the southern parts of New South Wales.

A ‘Severe Weather Warning’ remains in place for Queensland with dangerous surf and abnormally high water levels expected. Strong Easterly swells from tropical cyclone ‘Gene’ are causing a surge in wave energy.

Up to 62% of Queensland remains drought declared but at the same time 70% has been declared a disaster area due to the current floods. It is anticipated that once the flood waters recede there will be benefits to the local rural economies in increased levels in water catchments but the state will initially face a flood bill in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The capital of Queensland, Brisbane, had water reserves of just 20% before the current rains which are expected to bolster that figure significantly.

The rain has caused havoc with some train lines in Queensland being all but washed away and estimates of repairs taking up to three weeks.

In New South Wales flash flooding isolated parts of Wollongong north of Sydney, whilst in Sydney some roads have also been cut off due to flooding. It is forecast that a further 200 millimetres of rain could fall over the next 24 hours along the eastern coast of Australia with some parts of the state already receiving almost 300 millimetres of rain in the past five days. Sydney’s water reserves are now at about 60%

And while many people may be thinking that the drought has broken authorities are refusing to ease water restrictions. The Queensland State Government is progressing with a plan to limit household water consumption with a quota of 230 litres per person per day.

The southern state of Victoria continues to move ahead with plans for a water desalination plant and other water piping and infrastructure projects to combat that States water crisis.