Things Europe and Sydney should be thankful for

France is a pretty big Country to drive through during a vacation.  But take the area of France, add to it the areas of Spain, the UK, Italy, Holland and Belgium and you’d still come up over 65,000 km² shy of the land occupied by the State of Queensland.

It’s a big State.  Few people live there and most of those that do live near the coast.  However, if you were to spread Queenslanders evenly throughout the State it equates to about 2.6 people for every square kilometre.  Shout cooee at the top of your voice and there’s a slim chance someone might hear you – but only slim.  Do the same thing in those Countries mentioned above, where the average density for every square kilometre is over 236 and at the very least you’d be slapped with a noise abatement order.  Or French lorry drivers might probably strike.

In the news, Queensland is slowly recovering from the worst flooding in recorded history.  Over ¾ of the State was declared a National Disaster Area with much of that region affected by short and long term flash flooding.  This equates to more than France, Spain, Holland and Belgium being under water.  And all their populations displaced.  That would be a lot of Europeans with nowhere to go. 

Flash flooding in Toowooba with woman on the bonnet of a car

Now, Northern Queensland is going to have to recover from huge category 5 Cyclone Yasi.    The sheer magnitude of the area affected by Yasi dwarfs even 2006’s Cyclone Larry where Larry, amongst other things, destroyed 80 – 90% of Australia’s banana plantations causing massive price hikes for foodstuffs grown in tropical Queensland.  When the dust settles after Yasi there is already the expectation prices will ramp up again.

Cyclone Yasi, off Northeastern Queensland

Here in Sydney we’ve only a heat wave to whinge about.  Come tomorrow we’ll have lived through a record continuous 6 days where the temperature in the CBD during daylight is way over 30 degrees.  At night, there’s an uncomfortable 25 + degrees to fitfully sleep through.  Another record.

In Sydney we have it almost as easy as Europe.