Not disagreeing but didn't the WA wheat belt have well above average rainfall over the past year (with SA much less than average - no change on recent years).

I'm repeating what ABC Landline said about yet another bad year for WA, though on checking I see WA 2007 was better than 2006 with some Nov 07 crop finishing rain
http://www.bom.gov.au/announcements/media_releases/climate/drought/20070...
et seq. That still doesn't mean next year will be back to 'normal'. I notice that most of the decent rain in the last 6 months was ex Top End cyclone or La Nina. SA now seems to be stuck on hot-dry and Tas is cold-dry. Either way it seems like the rain is less dependable these days.

I'm just going on a map I saw in the paper this week - showing areas of above and below average rain.

WA wheatbelt was way above average (as was the east coast above Sydney) - SA, VIC, NT and Tassie were dry...