Townsville-Water

In the seven weeks we’ve been here in Townsville it has rained only once. Apparently this is not overly uncommon. This part of Australia gets most of their rain during the months of November through April, although this most recent wet season was apparently not so wet. Climate change has a taken a toll on Australia in general in recent decades with increased temperatures, more bush fires and prolonged droughts. As a result, we are currently under “Level 3 Water Restrictions” (reminds me of “double secret probation” from Animal House).

Part of our house sitting duties is keeping the gardens watered, but I am only allowed to hand water (no sprinklers) 6-7am and 6-7pm on Wednesdays and Sundays. It isn’t even fully daylight during those two hours. Unless your neighbor turns you in I don’t know if there’s much chance of getting caught for violating the watering restrictions but there is the risk of a $365 fine so I’m being a good boy. Our hosts have a drip irrigation system (“weeper hoses” they call them) set up on some of the planting beds, but others need hand watering so I fully utilize those allowed watering hours with help in the evenings from Deborah who waters a particular patch of lawn  to minimize windblown debris in the swimming pool. The rest of the lawn we were told to let go brown, which it pretty much has now.

Toilets here are always water efficient. We have dual flush models here in the house where you can select your flushing water amount based on…, well, you get the idea.  Once I had a surprise when lifting the toilet lid, causing me to immediately shut it again to allow my brain to process what I had just seen. At first I was thinking: insufficient flush during a previous use. But then I remembered what I saw was green and had legs, so that was probably not the cause. It turned out to be a frog, perhaps looking for (and finding!) a bit of water during these dry days. We didn’t have the heart to just flush him away so we awkwardly chased him through several rooms and then finally out of the house. A couple of days later we found another frog in the toilet room. Then our host’s daughter mentioned the possibility of snakes chasing after the frogs. Then I stumbled across this news article reporting pythons found in toilets here in Townsville two years ago:

http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-15/snakes-in-loos-search-for-water-in-townsville-houses/6778608

So now we make sure the lid is down, and we check before sitting, even if it means turning on the light in the middle of the night. No more surprises, please.

One advantage of the watering schedule is that I'm up and outside for the sunrise.

...and the sunset.

Despite the watering restrictions swimming pools are allowed to be topped up.

This swimmer needed rescue - and survived!

The Black "River", or what's left of it.

Our surprise guest.