December 23, 2019

Saturday, December 21, was the winter solstice in the United States and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere—which includes Australia, New Zealand, and other lands south of the equator—the solstice marks the beginning of summer. In Australia, summer is a season known for bushfires. Such wildfires are common in Australia, due in part to the country’s hot and dry climate. Many wildfires start in the remote countryside known to Australians as the bush. Bushfires can be extremely destructive, especially if they reach urban areas. The fires often kill people and destroy property and farmland. They also devastate forests, along with the koalas and other animals that live there.

Police in Jimboomba, Queensland, rescued this koala and her joey from a bushfire in late November 2019. Many other koalas were not so lucky. Credit: Jimboomba Police

A number of major bushfires have plagued Australia in 2019. Late last summer, in February, bushfires consumed more than 50,000 acres (20,000 hectares) of land in northern New South Wales. Far more destructive bushfires ignited again in New South Wales in September, burning nearly 5 million acres (2 million hectares) there and in neighboring Queensland. Some of those fires lasted for weeks, while others continue to burn, turning skies black or orange, causing severe damage, and killing a number of people. The bushfires also killed thousands of vulnerable and slow-moving koalas trapped by the rapidly spreading flames.

Bushfires are relatively common in Australia. These fire-damaged buildings are seen alongside a house that survived Christmas Day bushfires near Melbourne in 2015. Credit: © Julian Smith, EPA/Landov

Koalas live only in the forests of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, in eastern Australia. They are found in significant numbers in only a few areas, and the animals are protected by law. Bushfires, however, ravage the koala’s natural habitat and its population. Koalas cannot escape the fast-moving fires, and their only defense is to climb to the top of a tree, curl into a ball, and hope the flames do not rise to reach them. Koalas sometimes survive this way, but they often burn their paws and claws descending charred trees, leaving them unable to climb properly again.

Koalas are not officially listed as endangered, but the population in New South Wales and Queensland has decreased by more than 40 percent since 1990. The animals are threatened by deforestation and habitat loss, as well as the effects of climate change, which is causing longer and more intense heat waves and droughts, leading to more frequent, intense, and longer-lasting bushfires. Beyond the flames and smoke of the fires, many koalas die from lack of water or exposure to prolonged periods of high temperatures. Australia just suffered through the driest spring in its history, and a brutal heat wave peaked on Dec. 19, 2019, when the highest ever nationwide average temperature—107.4 °F (41.9 °C)—was recorded.

February 11, 2019

Last week, monsoon rains dumped record amounts of water in northern  Queensland, Australia, flooding roads, swelling rivers above their banks, and causing landslides. The coastal city of Townsville received more than 3.3 feet (1.0 meters) of rain, raising the level of water held by the Ross River dam to dangerous levels far above its capacity. On February 3, city officials opened the dam’s gates, intentionally flooding several neighborhoods to ease pressure on the dam and keep it from collapsing. Crocodiles, snakes, and other wildlife followed the waters into the flooded streets, appearing in places they are not typically found. Boats and other vehicles capable of navigating high waters rescued many people and pets trapped by the flooding. Two people are known to have died in the flooding.

Floodwaters inundate the Townsville, Australia, suburb of Idalia on Feb. 4, 2019. Credit: © Ian Hitchcock, Getty Images

Some Queensland farmers welcomed the rainfall. Drought conditions have been widespread in recent months across Australia (where summer is from December to February), and the farmers hoped the rain would help their crops. The monsoon flooding came at the tail end of the hottest month ever recorded by Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. On February 1, the agency reported that the average January temperature across the continent exceeded 86 ºF (30 ºC). The Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, the Northern Territory, and Victoria all set new high temperature records for the month of January. Some parts of western Queensland and New South Wales had weeks of temperatures above 104 ºF (40 ºC). Numerous farm and wild animals died in the extreme heat, as did many fish in overheated lakes and rivers.

Despite the monsoon rains in Queensland, much of Australia remains in a drought. Scientists believe that such extreme weather events will become more frequent in coming years as a result of global climate change.

August 15, 2017

This week in Brisbane, a city in Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland, many thousands of people are crowding into the Queensland Ekka, an event officially known as the Royal Queensland Show. The Ekka (Queensland slang for exhibition) is a carnival-like atmosphere of food, drink, concerts, games, pageants, rides, shopping, and animal and other competitions. The Royal Queensland Show began mainly as an agricultural exhibition in 1876, and it has evolved and grown ever since. Queensland’s largest annual event, the one-of-a-kind Ekka runs this year from August 10 to August 20.

The sun sets over Sideshow Alley at the Royal Queensland Show, an event also known as the Ekka, in Brisbane, Australia. Credit: Cozzie 1996 (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The first Ekka, known then as the Intercolonial Exhibition, was held in August 1876. The exhibition promoted the development of Queensland, a colony then just 17 years old. The event brought together the fast-growing and often-disparate urban and rural populations of Queensland, helping to create a sense of community. Held at Bowen Park (adjacent to the Ekka’s current home at Brisbane Showgrounds), the first exhibition’s attendance nearly equaled the entire population of Brisbane (about 22,000 at the time). The Ekka then grew in size and popularity to the extent that, in 1921, King George V of the United Kingdom allowed the addition of Royal to the exhibition’s name. The Ekka has been held every year since 1876 except in 1919, when it was canceled because of the Spanish flu epidemic, and in 1942, when the showgrounds were packed with troops during World War II.

Queenslanders parade their livestock during the Grand Parade in the main arena of Brisbane’s Ekka in 1948. Credit: State Library of Queensland

Today, the Ekka attracts about 500,000 visitors every August. Ekka is famous for its unusual mix of attractions, including a champion rooster show, a whip-cracking competition, and self-proclaimed “glamorous fashion parades.” Queenslanders have been entering the Ekka gates for generations now, and kids today still get their dagwood dogs (corn dogs) and showbags (themed gift bags), just as their grandparents did. Entertainment has modernized, of course, since the 1876 manure competition, as have the contents (and prices and varieties) of showbags. That first year, the lone showbag was a free sack of coal—reason enough for Queenslanders to attend.

November 21, 2013

Drought has driven at least 50 emus into the center of the Queensland city of Longreach in Australia in search of food and water. “Out in the paddocks, there is not a lot of food for them, because emus are really seed eaters,” a Longreach official told ABC News. In early November, the Queensland government declared a little over 62 percent of the state officially in drought. During the past year, much of Queensland has received less than 65 percent of its normal average rainfall. Higher-than-normal temperatures have also made surface water harder to find. Numerous wildfires are burning across the state.

The emu is a large flightless Australian bird. It stands about 5 1/2 feet (1.7 meters) high, weighs about 100 pounds (45 kilograms), and has brownish-black feathers. (© Worakit Sirijinda, Shutterstock)

Longreach officials said there are no plans to remove the swift-running birds from the town. “People just have to be mindful when they see them and be careful and give them right of way,” said a police official, “It doesn’t hurt to slow down and let them cross, because they are under a lot of pressure at the moment looking for food and water for their families.”

Additional World Book articles:

• Outback
• Bushfires in Australia

April 12, 2012

Each year, people in the Australian state of Queensland take up the fight against a massive army of dangerous, alien invaders: cane toads. The event is called Toad Day Out, and in most years it results in tens of thousands of toads being caught and, later, humanely killed. Prizes are awarded for the heaviest toad caught, as well as for the heaviest total weight of toads caught by an individual. This year, volunteers are facing a toad population estimated at 200 million, and one which may in fact be spreading out of Queensland into New South Wales and the Northern Territory.

The cane toad is one of the largest toads. An adult can grow as long as 9 inches (23 centimeters). (World Book illustration by Oxford Illustrators Limited)

The cane toad, whose range originally extended from the southern United States to tropical South America, is one of the largest toads. It can reach 9 inches (23 centimeters) in length. It is also an impressive breeder. Females are capable of producing up to 20,000 eggs at a time, sometimes several times a year.

Cane toads were originally brought to Australia from Hawaii in 1935 to eat cane beetles, whose larvae were destroying sugar cane crops. The toads multiplied rapidly and soon became a threat to native Australian species. They eat some native animals and insects and compete with others for food. They also secrete toxins through their skin from large glands at the back of the head, making them poisonous to predators, pets, and human beings. Some animals, including quolls (a small marsupial), snakes, and crocodiles, have died after eating cane toads, causing populations of native species to decline. Human beings have experienced intense pain, temporary blindness, and inflammation after handling cane toads. Worst of all, it quickly became clear that cane toads do not eat adult sugar cane beetles, and the larvae live underground, where the toads cannot reach them. The experiment was a failure.

Cane beetle larvae eat the roots of sugar cane, stunting or killing the plants. (World Book illustration by James Teason)

Scientists have been trying for years to find a biological control, such as a genetically engineered virus, to eradicate the cane toad in Australia. However, so far, no solution is in sight. For the time being, the government is focusing on limiting the spread of the toad, and Toad Day Out appears to be the most effective method of dealing with this robust amphibian pest.

Additional World Book article:

• Biology 2009 (Back in Time article)

March 9, 2012

Days of very heavy rain in Australia have caused flooding in parts of three states, New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, and Victoria. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate in NSW, where an enormous stretch–fully 75 percent–of Australia’s most populous state is under water. In what has been described as the state’s worst flooding in 150 years, scores of towns are inundated–from Forbes in central NSW to Griffith in the south and across the state line into northern Victoria. On March 7, the heaviest recorded rainfall in years triggered flash flooding across much of Sydney, Australia’s largest city.

World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.

La Nina weather conditions, which typically bring higher-than-normal rainfall, are affecting Australia’s southeast. “Australia is in the throes of two consecutive La Nina events,” stated Aaron Coutts-Smith, NSW climate manager for Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. “It is very rare to have such persistent, record-breaking rainfall over such large areas .  .  .”  Just weeks ago, in February, thousands were forced to evacuate in Queensland, where residents suffered through a third major flood in less than two years. From 2001 through 2009, the same area, Australia’s southeast, underwent the worst drought in the continent’s recorded history.

Additional World Book articles

• Australia 2006 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2007 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2008 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2009 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2010 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2011 (Back in Time article)