Thursday, September 24, 2009

Duststorm sweeps over Eastern Australia



sand storm

The most extraordinary dust storm travelled across the Australian continent over the past couple of days. It descended on Brisbane this morning and we can just see stars coming through again now...  over 12 hrs later. This image above comes from Yuki's Art Blog and is of New Farm Park next to the Brisbane River (on the right). If you wish to see more images do visit her blog. She is a Japanese illustrator /photographer living in Brisbane and her post today - SEP 23 - titled  Sandstorm in Brisbane has other images you can view. I did not get to take photos and was ensconced in my studio with windows all shut to keep out the red dust. Many people reportedly suffered breathing problems and there were huge disruptions to normal services in many centres.




7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Sophie,
Wasn't it a strange day. There's soooooo much dust in my house - I was out when it hit and had all my windows open :-(
Today is a big clean-up day! Very glad its passed!!
Cheers, Karen

Sophie Munns said...

HI Karen,
Good to hear from you!
It was pretty extraordinary. Luckily I was home to shut the windows when I became aware it was getting bad. I hadn't seen any news coverage...and though I was aware Sydney has been affected I was shocked that it travelled so far.
I've seen similar living in Melbourne. Summer there brings the unexpected...
The dust particles apparently have a lot of iron in them...hence the redness!
Photographers were no doubt out capturing the rare shot!
Have you been to Vietnam lately by the way?
See you!

Candice Herne said...

Hi Sophie
These images are beautiful of the dust storm. Thanks for sharing these. The author Yuki has lovely artwork and photography. Thanks to BAD I'm finding lots of interesting artists doing great things. Hope to see you at the next meeting. Candyxx

Sophie Munns said...

Hi Candy,
It is wonderful to be making local connections through the blog as well as one's broader afield.
Yuki participated in a show at IMA I missed ...but hopefully you or I will get to see more of what she is up to!
Thanks for commenting and I do hope to make the next meeting...so will see you then.
Hope travel plans are going well...that sounds like a brilliant trip!
cheers,
S x

em said...

sophie, wow did all the plants and cars get coated? where did all the dust come from?

Sophie Munns said...

Hi Em,
everything was coated in a very fine layer of dust. We then had another lighter dust storm saturday so i was rather pleased to have left car-washing till yesterday!
The garden did look lack lustre in parts...but then the back lawn was mowed too low recently and the rain has been so minimal that it was already looking less green than it had been in a while. We keep finding places that the dust got to inside the house. Ive probably been eating dust as I sleep!
The dust was from central southern australia...vast desert areas lost layers of mixed particles that had ended up there after heavy floods in the north of Australia 6 months or so before. And several unusual weather conditions collided to produce this particularly startling event. Dust storms do happen...but not so frequently do they travel this far and wide. There was also a high iron ore content in the dust ....wny it was such a strong reddish colour.
Very peculiar experience!
Thanks for visitng today Em...not so greesn as your wornderful garden hereat the moment!
S

Jay Dee said...

Very fine dust indeed! Despite cleaning everything inside and out yesterday, I'm still feeling it under my feet through the house! I think it will be a while before it disipates altogether! It was amazing to watch though.