AUSTRALIA: SINGED AND SOGGY; BUT NOT SCORCHED AND DROWNING

AUSTRALIA: SINGED AND SOGGY; BUT NOT SCORCHED AND DROWNING

Let´s talk resilience in the time of floods, bushfires, and virus

Living in Australia you are not exempt from what happens in the environment. Australia is a vast land, exceeding 7.6 million km²; it is a land of droughts and floods, but also rich, diverse and strong.

This year we had unprecedented bushfires and unprecedented floods. Yet we Australians pride ourselves on winning against the odds and adapting to extreme weather. That is who we are; that is what we do.

Also, this year the world lives with CorVid-19. There is no need to go into the details of the ramifications and political, economic, social, and human effects this will have on all of us. Yet, we are fortunate because when it is winter in North Asia it is summer in Australia, and as such the life of the virus and a chance of infection is less. Also, we are lucky to have top-notch scientists working on a cure; it was an Institute at the University of Melbourne who first cracked the virus code and gave it to the world. The creation and sharing of the virus sample will hasten the development of potential vaccines. The University of Queensland is one of the three global centres collaboratively working on that.

Australia will rebuild the damage caused by fire and flood. This is our culture and our spirit.

The bushfire season in Australia this year has been particularly bad. The area of Australia affected is about the size of Scotland. Scotland fits into Australia 98 times. China is Australia’s most significant trading partner, taking 30% of our exports and providing 18% of our imports. Our exports to China, are led by energy, minerals, food and services. The first three will simply go into the international market and as they are commodities, we will be a price taker. Services are basically education and tourism. One would expect that education will bounce back within six months but the tourism may take some time.

Fire is an essential part of the Australian plant life-cycle. The seeds of most of our gum trees need to be burnt to germinate. Our earliest settlers burnt the land so that they could farm it some 40,000 years ago. Over the past 200 years, Australians have learned to live with this beautiful but hard land. Our social contract with the agricultural sector will no doubt see they are supported through this. Despite the pictures not a lot of agriculture was lost.

From north Queensland to the south of Tasmania 3,705 km from Perth to Sydney is 4042 km. Put simply Australia is a big place and experiences lots of weather.

Australia’s GDP in 2018 was USD 1,432 billion with a GDP per capita of AUD 48,800. Most of this is generated in lands and are not affected by either flood or fire.  

Australia remains a great place to live and wonder place to invest.

Paul Raftery