The calendar finally ticked over into February last week, officially ending the hottest January Australia has ever seen. Photograph: Dan Peled/EPATasmania - a place once considered somewhat immune to the climate change issues facing the scorching mainland - is still facing the tail end of catastrophic bushfires. Locally, in Wagga Wagga, even the city’s treasured lake has become slick with blue-green algae, cruelly rendering it a useless resource just when the local population needs it the most. I emigrated to regional Australia just over 10 years ago, when Australia was entrenched in yet another heatwave. Kelly Shaw is a freelance writer based in Wagga Wagga, country New South Wales, where she is an adjunct lecturer in writing at Charles Sturt University.

Source: The Irish Times February 08, 2019 07:00 UTC