Straya!

[laklak]

New Aussie slang

[Svartalf]

[Hermit]

New Aussie slang

Onya, cob.

[Brian Peacock]

[Scot Dutchy]

Brilliant

[JimC]

Steady on, old chap!

[pErvinalia]

Ya flamin' dingo, Lak!

[Sean Hayden]

[pErvinalia]

We've started panic buying alcohol here..

[Scot Dutchy]

Nice one. How about a lock down on the reef now that lock downs are popular.

Great Barrier Reef suffers third mass coral bleaching event in five years

Renowned scientist Terry Hughes says huge swathes of reef have been affected in a ‘severe’ situation

The Great Barrier Reef has experienced a third mass coral bleaching event in five years, according to the scientist carrying out aerial surveys over hundreds of individual reefs.

With three days of a nine-day survey to go, Prof Terry Hughes told Guardian Australia: “We know this is a mass bleaching event and it’s a severe one.”

It follows the worst outbreaks of mass bleaching on record killing about half the shallow water corals on the world’s biggest reef system in 2016 and 2017.

Hughes, director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University and one of the world’s leading authorities on bleaching and the Great Barrier Reef, said: “We know enough now that [the bleaching] is more severe than in 1998 and 2002. How it sits with 2016 and 2017 we are not sure yet.”

[pErvinalia]

What has tourism ever done for the Australian economy?

[Scot Dutchy]

Ask the people of Cairns.

[JimC]

I doubt there are any tourist boats heading out to the reef at the moment.

[Brian Peacock]

You're probably right Jim. But I bet the ore tankers are still ploughing through the recently dredged channels.

[JimC]

Just to add to a Crumplesque view of the world:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-27/ ... k/12096104

The Townsville Hospital and Health Service says it may declare an outbreak of dengue fever in the city with two confirmed cases and another suspected.

The infections place increased pressure on health services dealing with a jump overnight of local COVID-19 cases from 6 to 11
Confirmed cases include a Stuart woman and a Condon man, while a case is being investigated in the suburb of Northern Beaches where health officials suspect the potential outbreak has started.

The viral illness, transferred when a person is bitten by an infected mosquito, often starts with fever, headache, muscle and joint pain, extreme tiredness, or a rash.

In some cases a patient may experience symptoms like a loss of appetite, vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, or a metallic taste in the mouth.