What is the average Australian's greatest fear?

[Aliantha]

Running out of food and water apparently.

I'll have to find the source (I heard it on the news on the way to work), but a poll was recently done which concluded that most Australians are less afraid of terrorists than they are of a lack of resources.

[Urbane Guerrilla]

Mhm... I hadn't heard that 10-12 had made that much of an impression. Maybe it was that the bomb was on Bali.

[Aliantha]

Well I think if they'd done the same poll shortly after Bali there would have been different results.

In my very humble opinion, most Australians are just losing interest in the whole 'war on terror' line. Not to mention that the drought gets far more coverage than any other single story in Australia at the moment.

[DucksNuts]

The drought is a lot more *real* to most of us and we are effected by it every day in many different ways.

I often sit and wonder what we will do in a few years time if we dont get substantial rainfalls.

Dairy farmer after dairy farmer is selling up here. They sell off their water right (at $1500 a meg...why wouldnt you?), then sell the land bare...with no water right.

So basically, they are selling dust.

Add to that, they are now talking about piping *our* (primary producer country) water down towards Melbourne and of course most of us are more worried about food n water

[Aliantha]

If we don't get substantial rains we'll be drinking treated bore water I'd say, and importing a lot of inferior produce from Asia.

[Hagar]

Water, definitely water.

Although, it is raining pretty well here right now!

[Aliantha]

2 inches overnight, even around the damns which is awesome!

[Urbane Guerrilla]

The damns? ...Or is this a Big Smoke joke I'm not privy to?

[Aliantha]

Should have said damned dams.

As in most urban areas, population first grew in areas where there was good rainfall. Over here, that means on the coast. Of course, they couldn't dam the areas where people live, so they built most dams about 150km inland. Unfortunately, the majority of rainfall doesn't go inland that far, so when the normal rain cycles are interrupted by drought - as they are now - the only place that gets rain is the coast. Great for anyone with a tank, but for everyone else, it sucks.

In my local area - which happens to be a capital city - we're on level 5 water restrictions. That means no external watering what so ever except by bucket on two evenings per week. We're all supposed to get our water consumption down to 140 litres which is a bit over 30 gallons per person per day. That means short showers and sensible water usage. It's not unrealistic and absolutely doable although for some people it's a big sacrifice. Those people can suffer in their proverbial jocks.

[Hagar]

That's it - We manage, but in reality we're not REALLY suffering.

I moved my car out in to the rain the other night to wash it. I'd still rather give it a proper wash and polish, but at least the gecko and bat crap is gone. Level 5 restrictions are that sort of sacrifice. I haven't lost a single plant, and I'm arguably better off for walking back and forth to the tap to fill my watering can. If they stop all outdoor water usage, I'll complain then.

Four-minute-showers just mean I can sleep in for another 10 minutes in the morning. Thats one more hit on the snooze button I didn't have before!

That solid 60 odd millimetres we had the other night was a real treat. You forget how good real rain is sometimes.

[Griff]

Are there historical figures available for rain in Australia?

[Rexmons]

i remember reading something a few months ago about how a company devolped a new machine that can draw moisture from the air EXTREMELY fast and how they were going to deploy them to iraq because the cost of shipping water there now is like $3.00/gallon or something outrageous like that, i wonder whatever became of that device.

[Thesilkmeister]

Water......my soul for some water.

goverment is twiddling their thumbs as farmers go out of business. I've got freinds up in Barooga (northern Vic) who are tomato growers and they've been buying their water for some time now....so this is not a new problem.

[wolf]

I thought your biggest fears were redbacks on the toilet seat and dingoes taking your babies.

Can mass media really be that wrong?

[Aliantha]

lol....absolutely.

The redback thing is true you know. When we had outdoor dunnies, the type of construction was ideal for redbacks to make their nests. Contrary to popular misconception though, they're not very aggressive creatures. You pretty much have to sit on them to get bitten.

Dingos generally stay away from people. They may steal the odd child, but not so many that you'd notice.