Australia Natural Disasters

Burning gum trees is one of the reasons why Australian bushfires are so ferocious. The resin, or gum, is very flammable and easily explodes with the heat, causing the bushfire to spread even more quickly through the oil-rich air of the tree crowns.

Bushfires are wildfires that occur in vegetated areas such as forests, grasslands, and bushland. They can be caused by natural factors like lightning strikes or human activities like arson or accidental ignition. Bushfires can spread rapidly and have devastating impacts on communities, wildlife, and the environment.

While there have not been official widespread evacuations due to drought in Australia, residents in some drought-affected regions have been relocated or temporarily moved to access services such as water, healthcare, and schooling. Evacuations may also occur to ensure safety during bushfires that can be exacerbated by drought conditions.

Up until 2009, the deadliest and most destructive Australian bushfires were the January 1939 "Black Friday" fires which decimated entire towns in minutes and killed 71 people. The "Ash Wednesday" fires in February 1983, which blazed from Adelaide and right across Victoria, killed 72 people and burnt out 5 million hectares burnt out. Over 2 thousand homes destroyed, several townships wiped out and 750 farms affected. The "Ash Wednesday" fires resulted in major legislative changes governing where and how people could build houses outside the metropolitan areas. Even more destructive were the "Black Saturday" bushfires that started on 7 February 2009 and ultimately killed over 200 people in different parts of the state of Victoria. These were caused by a combination of extended extreme temperatures, arson and electrical power pole faults.

Three major types of floods include: * Slow onset floods - these occur gradually after there has been significant rain in a catchment area. Often, towns have plenty of warning that such floods are coming, and have the time to create levee banks for protection. Charleville, in western Queensland, is prone to slow onset floods as the waters flow down the Warrego River from further upstream, where heavy rain has fallen. The water takes days or even weeks to go down. * Fast onset floods - these are also caused by heavy monsoonal rains, but water comes up more quickly, often trapping motorists trying to cross swollen rivers and isolating towns quickly, then just as quickly subsiding. * Flash floods - usually caused by thunderstorms and sudden downpours. these fill rivers and drains quickly, sweeping away people who try to cross. Flash floods subside very quickly.

Bushfires, in varying degrees of severity, occur almost daily in different localities during the warmer months, beginning around late August in parts of Queensland. They reach their peak during mid-summer, with perhaps hundreds occurring through Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia on a daily basis. Many of these are small spot-fires which are easily extinguished. Major flare-ups occur less often.

It shifted land, created liquefaction, created large gaps in the ground etc.

It ruined houses and farm land and made rivers flow the other ways, it also ruined precious buildings that have been very historic and some have been there for over 100 years.

Hope this helps

Cyclone Larry made landfall in north Queensland, Australia near the town of Innisfail on March 20, 2006. It caused significant damage to the area, including destroying homes, crops, and infrastructure.

Social impacts range from the impacts of life due to the damage to the grief for lost loved ones to the tearing apart of communities. Lives are changed drastically when a bushfire destroys property. Often the families are unable to muster enough money to repair the damage and as thus it changes their entire lives. This can be very stressful and depressing and can sometimes lead to divorces and the like. It is not uncommon for people to die in bushfires and the grief this can cause can lead to major changes in the families' lives as a result. Both of these options lead to the splitting of communities.

A tropical cyclone usually happens in various parts of the Pacific Ocean and affects regions of Mexico, south-east Asia, north Australia and the south Pacific islands. In Queensland, cyclones usually happen in the north-east between Port Douglas and Maryborough. In Australia cyclone season runs from November 1 to 30 April, but most cyclones happen between December and April. About 10 cyclones develop over the waters each year and six of these cross the coast.

The winds started becoming destructive at about 7.30am and by about 11.30am it was safe to go outside, maybe a little earlier. I was there, I was 8 years old and remember gusts of wind started breaking things about 5pm on 24/12/71 and the wind blew hard all night. We lost power for several days. The eye passed directly over Townsville and lasted about 10 to 15 minutes, it was a strange silence after such feroucious winds and then the wind hit again from the opposite direction at over 200kms/hr. The roof was ripped off the house opposite us and crashed into another house taking all the fences with it. Fortuatley we were in a brand new single story house with Cyclone proof roof bolts and we were one of the few houses that sustained only minor damage from flying objects. The wind subsided on Christmas day, I remember having vegemite on bread for Christmas dinner. It rained solid for weeks after the cyclone passed and Townsville was flooded causing even more damage. It was like a bomb had gone off, 90% of homes were damaged and many destroyed. The damage was far less than Darwin experienced when Tracy hit 3 years later but this was probably because Townsville had been hit about 16 times before and the building codes were stricter. Darwin had never taken a direct hit and as a result insufficient building codes cost them dearly.

The Canberra bushfires of 2003 were started by lightning strikes in the Kosciuszko National Park to the west of the ACT. These spread to the adjoining Brindabella and Namadgi National Parks near Canberra and a state of emergency was declared in the city itself when, at 2.45pm on 18 January 2003, the fires reached the outskirts of Canberra and began encroaching upon the city. The fires were exacerbated by the heat and dry conditions, a common problem in southern inland Australia in summer.

The dreadful Eyre Peninsula bushfires of 2005 which trapped a town and killed 9 were apparently started by the backfiring or hot exhaust pipe of an old truck belonging to a local prospector.

It is also said that this same prospector lost his home in the more recent bushfires which again swept through parts of the Eyre Peninsula.

Bushfires are a natural occurrence that play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem health by promoting new growth, recycling nutrients, and controlling plant and animal populations. They also help prevent the buildup of dry vegetation that could fuel larger, more destructive fires in the future. However, the frequency and intensity of bushfires can be exacerbated by climate change and human activities, leading to negative impacts on communities and the environment.

Brisbane's floods of 1974 were the result of an unusual situation. Whilst the depression which dumped hundreds of millimetres of rain as a result of Cyclone Wanda was unprecedented, it was made more catastrophic by the fact that it had already been a very wet year thourghout the eastern states beforehand. The ground was waterlogged, and simply could not absorb any more water.

The floods were made worse by the fact that a huge container ship broke loose from the shipyards, and wedged itself across the Brisbane River just before the mouth. This prevented the escape of the water to the sea, exacerbating the floods in the CBD.

arsonits are to blame! they are silly little things that go around and say 'Hey there is some dry land, lets burn it!' and they drop a cigarette and PCHaooooo off goes the fire and then everyone dies and goes chaaarrcccck and go to the flying spaghetti monster in the sky.

Droughts can occur anywhere in Australia. They most commonly occur in areas away from the coast, but each of Australia's states and/or territories are subject to drought conditions. South Australia is the driest state, and droughts are frequent and prolonged in that state, but the central western regions of Queensland, New South wales and Victoria are also subject to terrible droughts.

Three significant events in Australian history for February 5 include:

1803: The early Australian sea-explorer, George Bass, disappeared. No trace of him was ever found.

1869: The world's largest recorded gold nugget to that date was found in Victoria, Australia.

1947: Australia's first cloud-seeding experiment resulting in artificially produced rain was carried out at Bathurst, New South Wales.

For more general world history events, see the related link.

From the air, a cyclone looks like a large rotating mass of cloud, with a distinctive "eye" in the centre.

When one is in a cyclone, the conditions are extremely windy, often accompanied by heavy rain. Trees can be bent and broken by the force of the wind, and flying debris poses a major hazard. Contrary to some opinions, cyclones do not look anything like a tornado from the ground. There is also a brief respite while the eye passes overhead.

In the most recent horrific "Black Saturday" bushfires in Victoria, Australia in February 2009, the death toll was believed to be 210, twelve days after the fires started. Police and sniffer dogs were still searching through the burnt rubble of whole towns. On 30 March 2009, after searching missing person's data and examining bushfire victims, this death toll was revised down to 173.

Cyclones are essentially caused by a combination of warm ocean temperatures, high humidity and low wind shear, which means differences in wind velocity and direction at different heights. If the wind shear is high, it can pull a cyclone apart. Low wind shear increases the chances of the cyclone developing. Cyclone Larry was caused by these factors, in particular, the warm waters of the Coral Sea, where it formed.