Hi! Miles,

On 13 Dec 06 09:24, you wrote to me:

 MM> You'll be pleased to hear that your bush fires have coloured our
 MM> moon dull pink last night - some 1400 miles eastwards... no wonder
 MM> you wanted our firefighters so badly.

Quite a shocker, hey.  First they're blasted with sleet and snow then a
month later they're toasted with extensive bush fires, some on a 200+
kilometre front.

That's just the southern states.  Such is not a problem in Queensland, yet,
but due to the on-going drought it would practically double the damage when
the real bush fire season gets going here.

 MM> The news this morning is
 MM> that Tasmania has also been plagued with outbursts - and this on
 MM> top of the worst drought for yonks... wish we could redirect our
 MM> rain your way.

Yep, it would be nice to get some fresh water infused into the countryside.
Some parts of the country are reporting 'worst drought in living memory'
type of records.  Many landowners are simply walking off into the sunset,
abandoning their properties; no one will buy into a bankrupted farming
(cattle, sheep or grain crop) business.

Our state capital, Brisbane, is very badly affected by the drought as well
with less than 28% dam capacity available in 3 major catchment areas. 
They're now on level-4 water (use) restrictions.  We're okay here; no
restrictions at all.

Maybe... if you could tow some of them icebergs over here, it might help.  ;-)

Cheers,
Paul.

... "Using yesterday's software to create tomorrow's problems today..."
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-31012