Monday 7 February 2011

An Englishman, a Norwegian and some Aussies walk into a bar

As with all the best last minute decisions, well at least a good percentage, they turn out the best. At midday Friday, after the car breaking down and our plans for a roadtrip going down the pan, we decided to do the obvious thing- go towards the cyclone to the north of Queensland.
We only travelled a little way up the coast to Noosa, where the secondary impact was evident.The majority of hostels in the popular coastal town were full to bursting where backpackers and holidaymakers had been evacuated from towns to the North to the safety of Noosa, well away from the weather system of Cyclone Yasi.
Cyclone Yasi ( a category 5 cyclone) was the largest cyclone to hit the land of Australia since 1918 and was a beast. It primarily hit the small towns of Innisfail, Cardwell and Tully, avoiding the main residential areas of Townsville and Cairns, which was little relief to many residents of Northern Queensland. The weather system itself was about the size of the USA with an eye containing winds of up to 320 km/h which decimated much of the towns/regions it hit and ruined several tourism areas, particularly areas around the incredibly popular Whitsundays islands, one of the jewels in Tourism Queensland's crown- another blow to the industry.
One of the craziest aspects was that places like Mount Isa, hundreds of kms inland were actually hit by Yasi, although it had been downgraded to a category 1/2 by the time it reached those areas, that fact it was reached at all was wholly unexpected for the area.

After meeting up with two Aussie girls who were staying in our dorm, they told us several stories about being evacuated out of Airlie beach, which in their words "was not any fun anyway, we must have been the only people in history who thought it was very dull". Possibly the best was the 5 Essex girls ( not perpetuating a stereotype of course) in their dorm who all slept in the same single bed for fear of being blown away by the high winds hundreds of kilometres away.
We had a great time in Noosa and the only physical impact of the cyclone that we saw was the strong winds that accompanied the weather system in more Southerly areas managing to blow in a load of Bluebottle Jellyfish to the main beaches of the areas leading to hundreds of people being stung and the surf club busiest day of the year so far!
The actual impact of the cyclone was brutal and has yet again meant that the tourism industry of the state has taken a battering (a good example was a pub in Airlie beach that has on average of 200 punters a night at this time of year but currently has an average of about 15) as well as the residential problems that have arisen. Many people's homes have been literally blown away, although those that have been built to cyclone standards were pretty much fine. An interesting sidenote is the clever get out clause that the state government are using about not all homes being cyclone proof- it was stated that after cyclone larry of 5 years ago that all NEW buildings in cyclone affected areas will be built to withstand cyclones of up to category 5 (which Yasi was), but existing buildings did not have to be upgraded. This has meant outcry in Innisfail, which was brutalised in Larry, as many residents were led to believe by local authorities that ALL homes would be made cyclone proof and whose homes were blown away again!
This new disaster has meant that the flood levy has been at the forefront of political thinking and has led to the Gillard g'ment having the lowest approval rating since it came to power, with or without Kevin Rudd. The levy has still to pass through parliament and some crucial people who decide whether the levy will pass are undecided on its future.
Couple all this wild weather with the bushfires in Western Australia that have destroyed 60 homes so far and all in all you have a country of incredible differences.
I am going to try and create a case study of the cyclone as well as the existing Brisbane flood one and have them both finished quite soon and possibly a bushfire one if I can manage it. This is all dependent on whether any school in Queensland actually decides they need an English relief teacher!Which I blooming hope they do!haha.
Hope everyone is happy and well!

Oh and the title of the blog refers to the people we went clubbing with in Noosa, although in reality it was 3 english, 2 norwegians, 2 aussies and a canadian!

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