It's raining! It's raining!

Water restrictions to be eased
February 19, 2010/the AGE

The state government is paving the way for water restrictions to be eased in Melbourne with an announcement that it is downgrading water bans in Geelong.

The city will move from stage-four restrictions to level three on March 1, enabling residents to water their gardens for up to eight hours a week - up from the current two hours.

The announcement foreshadows the relaxing of Melbourne's water restrictions, which have been on level 3a for almost three years.

Water chiefs are set to announce by the end of next month new restrictions for Melbourne, which Premier John Brumby has promised will be eased on the back of the north-south pipeline that opened last week.

The controversial pipeline will top up Melbourne's dams with 75 billion litres of water from the Goulburn River.

Building its case for water restrictions to be eased in Melbourne, the government says the capital now has the toughest water restrictions of any major Victorian city.

Only the central Victorian town of Maryborough, currently on stage-four restrictions, is worse off....<cont>

For the first time since 2005 heavy rainfall in the Adelaide Hills in spring has meant our storages are in a healthy state leading into summer. Adelaide’s water consumption has also been tracking below our target forecast under restrictions. These more flexible times allow you to spread your watering times in a way that suits you and helps your garden survive the coming summer.

Dripper systems and hand-held hoses fitted with a trigger nozzle can be used for a maximum of 5 hours a week between the hours of 6-9am or 6-9pm on any day.

Watering cans and buckets can be used on any day/time. Sprinklers and other watering systems remain banned.

Currently watering times remain unchanged for people with a permit who are unable to adhere to restrictions due to age or disability

Record rain fills heart of Australia
By Paul Lockyer
Updated Mon Mar 1, 2010 5:22pm AEDT/ABC News online


Outback downpour: the deluge continues to bring rain to Central Australia (ABC: Paul Lockyer)

A deluge which has swamped the dead heart of Australia and left towns and properties isolated has set new rainfall records.

In the outback town of Birdsville, in far western Queensland, Senior Constable Scott Gander pored over rain records dating back to 1892 in an effort to give the downpour, which began on Saturday night, some historical perspective.

It eclipsed anything he found.

In the 24 hours to 9.00am, 168 millimetres fell in Birdsville - the average annual rainfall delivered in one day.

Since Saturday the town has registered more than 225 millimetres - nearly nine inches on the old scale.

And the deluge, which came across the Simpson Desert from the Northern Territory with a slow moving monsoonal system, continues to bring rain to Central Australia.

Huge falls of more than 150 millimetres have been recorded all around Birdsville - 300 kilometres to the north, 100 kilometres to the south and just as far to the east.

The outback water courses that run through the arid centre towards Lake Eyre - the Georgina and the Diamantina Rivers, and Eyre Creek - are rising rapidly.

Last year flooding rains in the north around Mount Isa sent the water down those waterways all the way to Lake Eyre. It may happen again.

Birdsville is awash and the main road out of town, which crosses the Diamantina River, is covered in floodwaters. It could be weeks before the road is reopened. ...<cont>

In Birdsville, dammit!