Drought and Water Restrictions

[Pup]

Ya all gotta move West.
If you belong to one of the clubs in Perth you get a water exemption. You are allowed to use sprinklers for 10 mins every day.
You can use the hose any time.
The sprinklers have to be used between 6pm 9am. Even if you have an artesian bore. You have to abide by those times.
Tell that to the business people and local shires. So all I can say is chin up. Remember natives in pot culture react the same as exotics Pup

[Hector Johnson]

I've lost a number of good trees over the last couple of years. Between working 80 hours/week; a neighbour who used to shout abuse at us every time we turned a tap on; and the insane watering times and conditions allowed by gov't, it's a surprise that any of my trees survived.

I note various governments whining that Queensland "steals" the water before it gets to the Murray-Darling irrigation area. That's a little disingenuous. The water they take out of the system is done at flood peaks and represents a very small slice of total water flow in the river system. They're just a convenient scapegoat for NSW and Vic politicians, to score a few points.

I think most of the water shortage trouble in the irrigation areas is down to poor farming techniques... using flood irrigation and open ditches to transport water around. Pipelines lose a lot less water than ditches and drip irrigation is something in the order of 80-90% more water efficient than flooding entire fields.

Our farmers could be using less than half of the water they currently use, if they were forced to be more efficient. It works pretty well in countries like Israel.

[Asus101]

I'm in SA there are only pipe based systems. Queensland interrogators didn't have any restrictions on water usage, where SA, VIC and NSW had large drops. In SA they were down to 1% allocation, while Queensland farmers had no restrictions. That has changed to some degree, SA farms now have 13% allocation.
You know SA is one of the leaders in irrigation technology, in fact we had people from the middle east here to share ideas and learn from what we are doing...

As for bonsai, they are little plants. Buy a blue 44 gallon drum, cut it in half, and fill it on your watering days. if its kept out of the sun you can submerge water when ever you need, and refill when its low.

[cyberbear]

I'm in Melbourne and so can only hose the garden twice a week, however we have a lot of buckets around our house! Buckets in the laundry, shower and kitchen to collect tap water. And when it rains you can't get off the veranda for all the buckets collecting run off. We are renting so installing tanks is not an option. Despite all the bonsai we are still well under the "155 litre" goal. However in this recent hot weather it has been really hard as the trees need water everyday. Might have to start showering with a bucket...

[Woz]

I have just got back from six weeks OS, before i left i rigged up a drip system to water 30mins every 48 hours to about 30 plants of various sizes, down the side of the house.I can back and my plants were healthy and getting mossy. I did notice when researching the drip sysytem that some councils approve drip systems for use in some regions. I am going to investige further for brisbane area, hopefully come back with some good news. Check detasils for you own area cause they just may be allowed?

[aaron_tas]

hey cyber and woz, not to seem like a nazi or anything, but see if you can type brizzy and melbourne into your control panel so everyone (later down the track) can help you more precisely with advice, because there is huge climatic changes between us

oh, and lucky me, no water restrictions

[Jarrod]

We installed 5000l last year and it is now paying its way. Though after this recent dry patch, even it is starting to feel the pinch, though we do have a big vege patch and my trees and a hot house and a shade house

I think i might put another in this year, just to make sure that i have the water i need in the next few years.

Tanks are a must if you want to protect your investments of time and money. (not that I have much that is that great yet)

[stymie]

To refresh your down under senses, I show sun on my snowed up trees this AM.

melt 3.2.09 1.jpg

melt 3.2.09 2.jpg

melt 3.2.09 3.jpg

melt 3.2.09 4.jpg

[Steven]

Nice Don! Most of us in Australia will never experience anything like that - except for when our UK corespondent shares pictures with us
Thanks mate,
Steven

[Bretts]

I could dive naked in that snow at the moment. It's too hot here.

[Marc]

Soltan, here here!! just a cool breeze will keep me happy at the moment!!!

[PeterW]

I could dive naked in that snow at the moment. It's too hot here.

OH.....MY EYES...MY EYES..........
Peter

[Hector Johnson]

The water runs down the rivers and into NSW very early in the piece. Don't believe all of the propaganda you hear from politicians about irrigation and water allocation. There are a lot of open, unsealed irrigation ditches in NSW and Vic and a huge number of open bore drains in Qld, wasting Artesian Basin water. None of the politicians doing the huffing and puffing ever threaten to stop such wasteful practices.

Meanwhile, we're being hammered to stay under 140 litres/person/day. I get pretty bloody annoyed that our entire household of 4 uses 127 litres/day total, on average, and I got a letter from the Brisbane Shitty Council yesterday, telling me to use less water!

Send us some snow, Don. This country is hotter than J-Lo's portfolio at the moment.