Paul Rosser 
I am endeavouring in this report to not start with the doom & gloom in the reports since August last year. So, I feel that every month without rain takes us one month closer to our first rains for the year. Showers don’t count. How’s that for a positive start?
In March 2025 we had showers on two occasions totalling 3.5mm. That took our Year to Date (YTD) to 13.0mm. In the spirit of being positive, we should be grateful for 13mm, it could have been nil.
When you compare this YTD to the last 14 years only 2019 is worse, it being 10.0mm YTD. I won’t go into the long list of comparisons this time other than to say that they were in the main well above the present situation. The mean over the last 100+ years for March is 21.5mm, so that put the 3.5mm into perspective.
The First Nations people would be entering their autumn now from the 1st April. It is called ‘Parnati’. Their autumn was a time of colder mornings, with dew on the ground at times. It is a time of fallen trees, as the CFS loggers report at this time of year. The ate well, with mullet, roots, possums, wallabies, kangaroos, bandicoots, mulloway, salmon, wild cabbage and birds from the wetlands as they filled with the advent of rain. It was a time when they moved inland to the foothills. They made shelters from tree bark & cloaks from animal skins & seaweed. What an idyllic setting.
Green Adelaide back in January gave us a report called ‘Stopping native forest logging, key to reaching net zero’. The report by Professors from the Australian National and Griffith Universities (Prof. David Lindenmayer and Professor Brendan Mackay) referred to the Federal Government’s target of 43% reduction in greenhouse gases from 2005 levels by 2030.
This in terms of tonnes is 15.3megatons per year for the next10 years. The paper reveals that this figure is equal to the carbon emissions generated by our current logging of native forests for wood chip and other things like toilet paper. Eucalypt soften the paper for our comfort & is mixed with pine. They also found in their research that untouched native forests are less prone to bushfire than logged regrowth forests for up to 70 years. Finally, their report claims that the sequestration of carbon in native forests is more value economically than all the woodchip & paper sales combined.
I found this paper interesting because years ago the Willunga Hillsface Landcare Group (WHLG) found that native forests had bio-diversity of plants which mono-culture forests (e.g. Pine forests or Blue Gum plantations) of course did not have. The bird life in the monoculture forests was restricted to less than a half a dozen varieties whereas the native forests hade up to 60 varieties depending on the quality of the bio-diversity. The latter also fared better in bushfires because of the wet, juicy lower story plants that they have.
The message at election time is a no brainer in my view.
The next three months in the lead up to winter is as follows:
- Rainfall will increase as winter sets in but will remain below average. The averages for April, May and June are 35.0mm, 56.5mm and 67.0mm respectively,
- Temperatures, both day and night will be above average,
- Soil moisture down to one metre is very dry & will gradually take up moisture but it won’t be saturated as in good years,
- The Murray Darling basin is currently at 57%, which is a concern because if we didn’t have that wonderful asset of a Desalination Plant at Lonsdale, we would have water restrictions by now & into autumn. The Lonsdale plant supplies water down as far as Aldinga Beach Road via Happy Valley Reservoir. South of Aldinga Beach Road comes from Myponga Reservoir. So, if those in the Aldinga Arts and Eco Village on mains water feel the water is tasting better it’s because is desalinated rather than Murray water.
- All the oceans around Australia are warmer than average currently and this has the potential for more rain. We still may have a possible cyclone left in the season – wouldn’t that be nice, 25mm in one day!! It was interesting to note that one place in Queensland has had 1.6metres (YTD) of rain up to last Monday. That’s three times plus our annual rainfall. The only downside is that they are flooded out & talking to Insurance Companies.
That’s it for now,
Catch you next month,
Paul
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