Flooding is often seen as a destructive natural phenomenon, but in Australia's red centre the arrival of floodwaters brings a brief explosion of life, as transient inland lakes fill with fish to provide food for as many as a milion birds.

The tropical north of Australia has a monsoon-type climate with a well marked wet season during the summer months. Normally the water from these rains flow northwards to reach the sea. Very occasionally the rain will move further south, cross the watershed and generate floodwaters.

These flow gently southwards across the vast Australian outback in the river beds of the Channel Country of Queensland, which can stay dry for years.

It takes two months for the floods to travel down the gentle incline from the tropical north to the final destination - Lake Eyre in South Australia some six hundred miles away.

As the waters arrive, drought-proof animals like desert crabs and frogs break free from their hibernation in the mud and race to breed before the waters subside. The newly formed lakes fill with fish, attracting hundreds of thousands of birds such as pelicans which somehow get wind of the bonanza.

Cattle farmers can look forward to a spreading green carpet for their livestock in the next few months as the floodwaters fertilise the barren land.

The remote outback town of Birdsville has been almost encircled by the floods. The Birdsville Hotel is Australia's most famous outback pub and its patrons have a reputation as some of the country's biggest beer drinkers.

The big floods of 1973 are etched in local memory, as the pub ran out of beer and drinkers were forced to slake their thirst with "Green Lizards", a mix of creme de menthe and lemonade. This time the pub is well stocked, as outlying cattle stations gave warning of the floods heading their way.

Weather News from the last five days:
10/02/2004
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