Had some big thunderstorms up here today - not sure how much fell across the divide (it looked like a bit on the radar), but Sydney got drenched.

SW Tassie hey ? You really did try and adapt to climate change early :-)

It would be more than a little ironic if the area was struck by drought and somewhere like south west WA got wetter (in defiance of Mr Flannery's predictions)...

I was not aware that hay was grown in SW Tasmania. I was born on the fringes of that area and all we managed to grow on our hill-sides was small fruits. But I guess that depends on how you define the “South West”. My rough rule of thumb is the area enclosed by the line from Strahan, to Ouse, to Catamaran. Where do you stand in relation to that?

I am very interested in this rainfall matter as I had been planning to return to Tasmania in response to peak oil and climate change. But from recent CSIRO reports it seems that coastal NSW looks a better (though much more expensive) option ---especially those bits adjacent to a railway line.