DUST TO DUST

The centre of Australia is flat, very flat and trees are few and far between leaving the horizon with scattered boulders, sage bush, and an inland desert with a very red dry dust that lays everywhere just waiting for a wind large enough to pick it up and send it storming across the interior .This is exactly what happened on the 23^rd September 2009.

The interior of Australia was hit by ferocious winds travelling at 100 miles per hour, hurling bucket loads of red sand up into the atmosphere, just west of Broken Hill.

As the storm raced across the desert, it tossed sand and dust up into the clouds creating a wall of dust that raced westwards towards the east coast of Australia.

The first town that it was to hit was Broken Hill, a township that the sun was to be completely blacked out by loads and loads of dust, so much in fact, the day turned into night as the video below shows.

The PERILYA mine at Broken Hill suffered a breakdown trapping miners underground when the winds and sand hit, knocking over power lines causing electricity failures which took hours to fix.

Meanwhile the storm headed east taking with it a giant swirling mess of dust and wind that lifted the galvanized metal roofing off buildings, covering the contents with a choking red dust that would settle over everything.

The storm rolled on, red sand biting into the Blue Mountains and although it was now night time the street lights were giving off a red glow that gave the residents an eerie feeling that kept everybody indoors.

The storm hit Sydney about 4am in the morning with gale force winds plunging through the suburbs, mine included. We were told to expect gale force winds but because it was quite warm I left three windows open. While asleep, the dust rolled into my house, under doorways, through windows spreading its dust all over our furniture, all over our floors and all through our clothing. We had washing on the line and that too was covered in red outback dust that adhered to everything. Photos throughout this hub show the stages of the storm that raged throughout New South Wales leaving a red film of dust everywhere. The storm hit as far up as Brisbane in the Queensland capital and as far south as the nations capital Canberra.

It has been very dry inland with rainfall very scarce. Most inland rivers are nearly dry, with creeks and dams nearly out of water. The harsh sun beats down relentlessly day after day; making dust storms a way of life for all inland Australians.

Strangely enough there are parts of Australia that do not lack rain sending falls over night into some areas and none into to others. I remember once studying far west corner of Queensland where it is dry most of the year and 70 kilometers east, the dams were full of water and if you travel south of this spot it was dry again. It has always been the case of not getting water where we want or if we do we get so much that flood waters drown the town.

I think we the people, can do something to warn us about the impending problems by giving fair warning. Hurricanes dust storms and tsunamis can be seen happening and we can give people warning however the Samoan tsunami just recently went undetected because there were no warning bells for people to reach higher ground .There were people having leisurely lunch when the tsunami hit leaving sadness and grief every where.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, dust storms are becoming a way of life and the people of the world should work together to bring a satisfactory outcome to these pestilences that are hitting us hard .