The Drought in Ballarat.

David-from-Ballarat, who has lived in HK for nearly a decade, asked us how Ballarat was looking after its ten year drought.  He particularly asked after the lake. So, here are a few shots for him:

David, the land around the city still looks very green ...

 

... and they are still farming sheep ...

No rain in those clouds!

... and so if it weren't for the watering notices everyplace ...

 See there on the right?

... you'd hardly know there was a drought on.

However the lake is definitely a giveaway:

And that's taken after they'd paid millions for water to be pumped in too!  Prior to this, it was totally dry and boys were riding bikes and skateboards on the dry-mud surface.  Walkers too were hiking across it as a shortcut to the other side of town.

Here's a close-up:

You can see here, it's only about two inches deep.

Oooh, and here's something really strange:

See there, near the middle of the shot?  That's a New Zealand pukeko, isn't it!  A native species that isn't found anywhere on earth?  Or is this just some swamp bitten that LOOKS like a pukeko?

You know, I SWEAR I saw those very rare Western Australian red-beaked black swans swimming around a pond in a Camelite Nunnery in Belfast when I was a very young child!  And this pukeko is another one of those moments:  a creature in entirely the wrong place ... like that current hunt for the kangaroo in Austria!  Some things are just WRONG!

Oh, and another moment that seemed just WRONG, particularly to Keith, was this statue in the place of honour at the centre of the park ...

... of his very own ancestor, William Wallace.  Of course, he was thrilled to see Ballarat honouring his forefather this way, only couldn't understand why!  And, hey, isn't it great that here Wallace looks more like Keith than Mel Gibson!

And, to conclude, just to make you a tad home-sick, here's a shot of something you'd know well:

 Know where this is?