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Some slightly related from Technorati and Google.

[shannonsays.com] The Debate About Drought Relief: "Farmers. Fellas. If a little milk bar operator, dry cleaner, plumber,printer, chippy, lawyer, dentist, doctor, engineer, butcher or anyother small business goes under there is no government handoutavailable. Those business people are required to stand or fall on thestrength of their own planning, operation, diligence, risk assessment,market observation, personal and business insurance protectionpositions.

[ whatsakyer?] Aussie Farmers struggle with drought, suicide: Aussie Farmers struggle with drought, suicide Drought casts suicide shadow over rural Australia (link) By Michael Perry Mon Jun 6,12:08 PM ET SYDNEY (Reuters) - The rate of rural suicide in Australia is among the highest in the world as farmers battle the stress of years of drought, failed

[Rhodes in Oz] Forces of Nature in Tasmania: Just for contrast we decided to explore Tasmania's capitol city.  However, the great metropolis of Hobart had no more hustle and bustle than a rural village.  We stayed at Wellington Lodge, a Victorian B&B situated in the part of Hobart called Glebe.  The lodge and surrounding Victorian-era houses gripped the side of the hill that sloped steeply downwards to the center of town.  In the distance, Mount Wellington loomed over the rooftops like a volcano.  Mount Wellington’s summit soared almost 4,000 feet above town.  The rugged peak was barren except for eroded boulders and scrub vegetation.  Like many of Tasmania’s serrated cliffs, Mount Wellington had its own set of famous midnight-black dolerite columns nicknamed ”˜The Organ Pipes’. Various hikes from the base ranged from day trips to overnight hiking ventures through forests, creeks, and waterfalls to the top of Mount Wellington.  This time we had the advantage of a car to scale the mountain, and were not at all envious of the cyclists endlessly pedaling uphill.  However, we did see the sights of Hobart’s city centre on foot, a feat manageable by even the feeblest walker since the majority of historical buildings, restaurants and interesting destinations were congregated close to the docklands.  Most surprising was the diversity of eating places, including the Taj Mahal Curry and Tandoori House which had the best Indian food we have eaten to date.  Our waiter quipped about the affordability of Hobart versus Sydney, making us almost noxious to hear that a 2-bedroom house in the hippest part of Hobart would only set you back $240/week.  Handmade goods were also fairly inexpensive as we experienced from Hobart’s infamous Salamanca markets.  I was shocked to find a handmade woolen beanie for just $30, an item of clothing I so desperately needed for our trip, since to quote some of my family from the south, it was “colder than a witch’s tit.”  It seemed like a crime to pay so little for a hat that took over ten hours to make.  The woman selling her hand woven garments sat behind an antique wooden spinning wheel.  She said it took approximately 9 hours to spin the wool on the foot-pedaled wheel.

[Climateark.org] 25/11/2003 -- AUSTRALIA: Drought the norm, says new book: The book, on Australia's response to recent droughts, found some of the schemes used to help farmers through droughts was doing more harm than good and temporarily sustaining poor farmers who should move on.

[Imaginingaustralia.blogs.com] Imagining Australia: Ideas For Our Future: As regular readers of the IA blog know, Andrew is a big fan of young gun economist called Steven Levitt.  Levitt has become famous for using economists' tools to find surprising answers for all kinds of unusual questions (like the links between legalizing abortion and falling crimes rates -- read here). Levitt has just published a very readable book on a bunch of his research findings, which -- not surprisingly given how interesting his stuff is -- is sitting pretty on the NYT bestseller list. Anyway, in a fascinating article in Slate today, Levitt reports on some more interesting research examining Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen's famous claim that there are 100 million "missing women" in Asia.

[Civilpandemonium.com] Civil Pandemonium: Guy Rundle's amusing piece and the Age editorial both make the point that welfare for farmers is pointless over the long term. The problem with the implication of Heathcote above is that many farmers are not bad managers as much as they are uninsurable and unsustainable. Even though giving money to farmers to keep them on the land degrades the land further and wastes money, it is a problem that - often - the State and Federal governments created, then reinforced repeatedly.

Reflected tags on Technorati: Blog, Aussie, The Green Files