Desert Mandala: Life In Central Australia

Amanda September 24th, 2008

You might have heard – Alice Springs had a category 2 storm on Monday, 24 September. This occurred at about 1.15pm, and in 20 minutes the town was thrashed, lashed and smashed. The winds reached speeds of 120km/h, and were accompanied by horizontal (!) rain.

We’ve had two very dry years, so as soon as the storm hit, many trees which were brittle and stressed after such a long, dry spell lost limbs or were uprooted completely.

This is the corner of Woods Tce & Priest Street. 

Driving down Woods Terrace as the storm subsided was like encountering the after-effects of a cyclone. I was getting my car registered at the time, and I had to sit in the car in the middle of a carpark -well away from any flying tree branches, watching the horizontal rain. As i drove back along the North Stuart Highway, I saw the damage to Northside Shops – a massive River Red Gum had come down and taken out all the powerlines and two poles – and I decided to head straight home.

Twenty minutes later, two-thirds of the town were without power, many houses had lost roofs, powerlines were down everywhere and a few cars were crushed by falling trees. KMart lost most of their shade shelters, and one of the huge metal shades in Coles was completely torn off.

 This is the huge metal shade that was torn off in Coles carpark. It squashed two cars (this is unconfirmed).

A number of significant buildings and old sacred trees were damaged:

This is the Old Gaol in Parsons Street. Remarkably, the roof only had a very small hole in it when the tree was removed.

Here is what was left of my back fence:

We were lucky. Our neighbours had a tree come through their front verandah and destroy it. Another neighbour lost their roof – they have a three month old baby. 

We had a short respite from the weather, and then by 3.15pm, another storm was brewing – preceded by a dust storm:

Thankfully, this wasn’t as bad as we thought it might have been.

Two days later, we are still cleaning up and will be for quite some time. There are places that still don’t have the power back on (ours came back on early Tuesday morning); one of my workmates is still without it.

Here is a the scene in Todd Mall about 8pm on Monday night:

Well. We needed rain…

…But maybe not like that!

• Central Australia
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gadget September 14th, 2008

Each year in Alice Springs the YMCA (the Y) organises an eight kilometre walking and running race from the Y to the top of West Gap, on the west side of Heavitree Gap. For all those of you that are locals then you’ll know it as the place where the three towers that provide telecommunications to Alice Springs can be seen wide and far.

This year Amanda, myself and Ben volunteered to assist in setting up the finish point high above Alice. After a fitful sleep due to some noisy neighbours we arose at 5.40am to travel to the Y to get the gear that we needed to setup at the finish line. So loaded with a trestle table, food and eskies full of Gatorade and mineral water we set off for the top.

At the base of the hill is a locked gate that is always locked except for occasions like this or for maintenance on the towers high above. We engaged 4wd because it said to and started up the long single width bitumen road to the top. It is quite a steep incline, winding as you near the top and no doubt just a bit of a challenge to the walkers and runners that attempt it. After getting to the top and just enjoying the view for a moment, we began the task of setting up the table, the eskies and laying out the food to await the athletes upon their finish.  

• Central Australia , small furry animals
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