AUSTRALIA DROUGHT HAS IMPACT ON FARMERS

indeed, 107 Murdered in cold blood since the beginning of this year by
Financial Vultures .... and all this resulting from the Collective
Crimes you well know about, and leading to the present DDD or Divine
Drudging Drought !

.... but apparently you all love that situation resulting indeed from a
well deserved Collective Punishment in return to the Great Sandy
Desert 1000 Billions Swindle & the cover up of Mining Criminals over a
whole generation, + the Port Arthur Holocaust & cover up of such by
both Tasmanian and Federal Governments.

NO RAIN AS A RESULT AND NO RAIN UNTIL MY RETURN TO AUSTRALIA

please read on down below that interesting story

Sir Jean-Paul Turcaud
Exploration Geologist & Offshore Consultant
Mobile +33 650 171 464

Australia Mining Pioneer
Founder of the True Geology
http://www.tnet.com.au/~warrigal/grule.html
http://users.indigo.net.au/don/tel/index.html
http://members.iimetro.com.au/~hubbca/turcaud.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s28534.htm
************************************************** *****************

the MERCURY NEWS
MercuryNews.com

AUSTRALIA DROUGHT HAS IMPACT ON FARMERS
ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press

CANBERRA, Australia - Grain farmer Eddie Valks hosted his daughter's
wedding on his 2,000 acre spread northwest of Sydney, complete with
bride and groom sailing off on a small lake. Four years later the lake
is gone, dried out by Australia's worst drought on record.

"If the wedding guests from the cities saw the place now, they'd be
shocked," said the 61-year-old Valks.

Drought and flood have been a familiar feature of Australia's vast
cattle and sheep ranches and shimmering grain fields ever since the
first Europeans settled here more than 200 years ago. But this "big
dry" is the worst and widest, officials say, and poses a massive
economic challenge.

It could bring lasting changes to the Earth's driest inhabited
continent and sharpen a debate about whether drought-hit farmers should
simply leave the Outback for rainier parts of the country.

It is also putting pressure on Prime Minister John Howard from those
who link the drought to global warming. These critics condemn his
center-right coalition for joining the United States in refusing to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Several cities and regions from the west to the east coast are
experiencing their driest year on record. Reservoirs were already low
at the outset of 2006 with some areas enduring below-average rainfall
for the past decade.

David Dreverman, a leading water conservation scientist, says such a
drought comes once in 1,000 years.

Dreverman, manager of the government commission that monitors water
flows in the Murray and Darling rivers, a system that sustains 40
percent of Australia's farming, has told state government leaders that
inflows this year were 54 percent below the last record low - by far
the biggest drop on record.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, a
government commodities researcher, predicts harvests of wheat barley,
barley and canola will cut the nation's grain earnings by $4.7 billion,
or 35 percent, this fiscal year which began on July 1.

Australia is usually the world's largest wheat exporter after the
United States and Canada, but a lack of winter rain across the
southeast means only 10.5 million tons of wheat will be harvested, the
smallest crop in more than a decade. That's compared with 28 million
tons in the previous year.

The bureau also estimated the drought will shave 0.7 percentage points
from the government's economic growth forecast of 3.25 percent for the
year ending June 30, 2007.

At Gunnedah, 280 miles northwest of Sydney, grain crops have failed and
ranchers are selling livestock because they can't afford feed.

Andrew Higham, who raises cattle on 3,000 acres near Gunnedah, says
weather swings are unpredictable.

"It's certainly more extreme. When we do get rain, it seems to come
down altogether and when it's dried up, it stays dry for extended
periods," he said. "It's definitely changed."

The government in October increased welfare and subsidies to 72,000
farmers - about half the nation's total.

"I don't know that we've seen this much of Australia's land mass
covered by drought in the past, and it requires a significant
response," Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said.

Food prices are climbing, and the Central Bank has raised interest
rates eight times, a quarter point each time, since May 2002.

In the cities, lawns are going brown and gardens are wilting under
water use restrictions.

Australia is the world's biggest exporter of coal and its reliance on
the fossil fuel is the major reason the nation of 20 million ranks
among the world's biggest carbon polluters per capita.

But Prime Minister Howard maintains there is no evidence to back claims
that the present drought is the result of greenhouse gas emissions.

Sen. Bill Heffernan, a government legislator, has said the long-term
answer is for farmers to move to the rain-drenched north.

"There's no question that climate change is a reality and we have got
to take our farms where the water is," Heffernan told Australian
Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Valks knows government aid and debates about global warming can't
refill his lake, and he's philosophical.

"It's just a fact of nature; the rivers have run dry before," he said.
"I'm just hoping that it will come good."