Yaegl Elder, patriarch, anthropologist, historian, former university lecturer, Doctor of Letters honoris causa Ron Heron of Yamba passed away on Thursday 13 July 2023 and his funeral will be held on Monday 24 July. NOTE: This post includes the image of a person who is deceased

 

Clarence Valley Independent, 19 July 2023:

The Indigenous community and people across the Clarence Valley are mourning the death of Yaegl Elder Uncle Ron Heron, who passed away on Thursday, July 13. He is pictured here at the opening of the Yuraygir Coastal Walk in 2014. Image: Geoff Helisma.

Aboriginal communities across Australia and people from the Northern Rivers are in mourning following the sudden passing of renowned Yaegl patriarch Uncle Ron Heron.

Uncle Ron Heron was born at Lismore in 1947, schooled in the mission system and worked in the Clarence Valley as a cane cutter and picking peas until he decided to make his mark on the world in his early 30’s.

His niece Lesley King told the CV Independent Uncle Ron was a working as a cane cutter when he woke one day determined to make his mark on Aboriginal society and education.

“Prior to all the studies he did, he was just an ordinary cane cutter, he used to go and do cane cutting all around the Clarence River,” she said.

“Then he woke up one day thinking he had to do something else with his life, he said he just decided ‘this isn’t me’, so he started studying, it was his own wake up call.

“So, he started working with Community Health in the Clarence Valley as an Aboriginal Drug and Alcohol counsellor, and he did a bit of work in the Richmond Valley travelling all around to places like Baryulgil.”

Lesley said Uncle Ron decided to go to university, so he moved the Canberra to study and graduated in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Letters, by thesis (now Master of Letters) in prehistory and anthropology.

“After he got his degree, he came back to the Richmond River area and he worked at Southern Cross University at Lismore for 10 years lecturing in Indigenous Studies,” she said.

Once a year Macquarie University came to Maclean High School as part of the Rivers of Learning program and Uncle Ron was involved in a week of training and learning, Lesley said, then they would all celebrate together.

Contributions to extensive research at Macquarie University on bush medicines, in international scientific journals, lectures and storytelling led to Uncle Ron being awarded a Doctor of Letters honoris causa from Macquarie University in September 2014, an extremely proud moment for the family and the Yaegl people.

“The family were so proud of Uncle Ron, he worked hard all of his study life,” Lesley said.

“He was a very gentle man; he was very positive in everything he did.

“He was passionate about Aboriginal issues, mostly with archaeology, but also with National Parks and Wildlife, to help educate the other side of the world, the Europeans.

“Uncle Ron met tonnes of beautiful people in his work and in his training and left a positive mark with everyone he met.”

When a mural of Uncle Ron painted on a pump station at Maclean was graffitied in 2022, Lesley said he was ‘gutted’, but when artist Nitsua unveiled a repainted mural in June 2023, he was immensely proud…..

During NAIDOC Week celebrations early this month, Lesley said Uncle Ron had a great time at the elders’ lunch and at the South Grafton community day.

“He was great, he was laughing and out meeting mates and friends and other Elders,” she said.

“Then he got sick on the weekend, and we took him to Maclean Hospital and all his tests were good until he had a blood test and we found out he had a heart attack.”

After the shock of the news Uncle Ron had suffered a heart attack, Lesley said arrangements were made for him to have bypass surgery, but tragically he passed away before the operation…..

“He was the father of all of us Yaegl people after we lost our mum and for all the other’s that had lost their mum and dad.

“Right up until his passing he was teaching all of his grandchildren what he was trained to do.”

Uncle Ron Heron will be farewelled at the Maclean Anglican Church on Monday, July 24, at a time to be confirmed.

With GCB Constructions Pty Ltd still in financial difficulties and tradesmen allegedly owed more than $1 million, the Uniting Church 50-unit retirement complex in Yamba remains in limbo

For over four months the Uniting Church’s 50-unit retirement complex build site in Yamba has remained devoid of all construction activity and the financial difficulties of the Gold Coast & Lismore-based builder remains unresolved.

The build before scaffolding was removed from the idle construction site.

This situation for a construction company built on the foundations of a small family business is a far cry from the optimistic outlook of 2011.

The Gold Coast Bulletin, 20 July 2023, p6:

The director of embattled Gold Coast builder GCB Constructions insists his company is viable, despite five more companies joining court action to wind it up.

GCB managing director Trent Clark said he was “determined and confident” of overcoming financial struggles which have seen work slow to a trickle or completely stop at sites along the east coast since May 8.

There has been good news for buyers in GCB’s largest project, Marine Quarter at Southport, who were told via email the site’s tower crane would return to operation and concrete work would recommence this week.

Subcontractors and suppliers of the company have lashed Queensland’s building regulator for not taking more decisive action on GCB’s licence. The licence was restricted on June 26, requiring GCB to submit its accounts weekly and preventing it from taking on new projects without express QBCC approval.

The QBCC acted almost two months after sites had shut down – amid subbies’ complaints they had not been paid – and a month after the wind-up action was initiated…..

Mr Clark did not answer questions about the current status of the wind-up. “Court actions are regularly taken against builders and we are working through these in an orderly fashion,” he said in a statement….

Buildcap, developer of the $97m Marine Quarter development under construction by GCB at Southport, emailed buyers on Wednesday, telling them work was due to ramp up on site this week.

“Works ... include the pouring of the slab of level 26 as well as level 27 stairwell and core walls, along with external facade works such as installation of windows and balustrading, render and painting,” the email said.

But down the NSW coast at Yamba, where GCB was building a 50-apartment retirement building for Uniting, work stalled in October and has not resumed since. One family business owner said they were owed a six-figure sum by the builder, who had ceased all communication with them by February. A statement from Uniting on Wednesday said “disappointingly work on the apartments and clubhouse remains on hold for now.” “While it’s expected that there will be a delay, Uniting is committed to completing all the planned works, including the apartments, and building a vibrant welcoming community,” the statement said.

Mr Clark did not answer the Bulletin’s questions about the Yamba project. GCB is battling major cases with two developers of its projects, which GCB claims owe it more than $14m, neither of which look likely to be resolved in the near future.

Dean Gallagher’s GDI Group, developer of the 27-storey Drift tower at Main Beach, launched action in May against GCB, claiming it failed to lodge security bonds worth more than $3.7m.

In turn, GCB alleges the developer owes them $3.8m in progress payments. The case has been set for a hearing on August 2. GCB is suing the developer of the $196m Ascot Aurora project in Brisbane, seeking more than $10m from a subsidiary of China-owned Poly Global. Poly has lodged a defence and counterclaim in that case, and both parties have been given until mid October to disclose their evidence. Mr Clark did not answer questions on how important succeeding in those cases was to his company’s viability, except to blame the alleged “non-payment from developers” for “some of the hiccups we have experienced”. GCB’s licence remained active on Wednesday.

The Gold Coast Bulletin, 21 January 2023, p.9:

In its most recently-lodged financial reports, for FY2021-22, GCB made $938,755 net profit from revenue of $92.04m. Its FY21 net profit was $1.1m from $67.4m revenue.

The company had gross assets of $25.3m and liabilities of $18.3m, including trade debts of more than $10.7m.

Cashflow would have been in negative territory for the year, had the builder not had access to cash from financing activities, including a share issue, bank loan and other drawdowns. It had $87,947 cash or equivalents at the end of June.

The company is registered as G C B Constructions and solely directed by Trent Clark.

Climate Change State of Play in 2023: as seen from Yamba, Australia and the rest of the world

 

Yamba (pop. est. 6,388) at the mouth of the Clarence River estuary on the NSW far north coast, has an official weather station ID: 058012 which has been recording observations since May 1877 from a headline on the northside of the town.

What this relatively long history, of measuring air temperature, humidity levels, wind direction & velocity along with rainfall, is currently indicating is that from January to June 2023 monthly temperatures have been hotter than the 145 year averages.

While over the same period rainfall is so far below monthly averages that by June - the first month of Winter - rainfall was est. 125-127mm below the 145 year average for that month and occurred across only 7 of the 30 June days.

Yamba, like much of the Clarence Valley and 23.3% of the North Coast has been classified as Drought Affected on the NSW DPI Combined Drought Indicator (CDI).

NSW DPI CDI mapping as of 12 July 2023

Reading the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) webpages, it is looking increasingly likely that an El Niño event will be declared in the southern hemisphere before September 2023.

It seems that little Yamba and Australia are marching in step with the rest of the world.......

Washington Post, 13 July 2023:

The world is hotter than it’s been in thousands of years, and it’s as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing.

The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days. India and Japan were deluged by extreme flooding.

They’re blaring from the scorching streets of Texas, Florida, Spain and China, with a severe heat wave also building in Phoenix and the Southwest in coming days.

They’re burbling up from the oceans, where temperatures have surged to levels considered “beyond extreme.”

And they’re showing up in unprecedented, still-burning wildfires in Canada that have sent plumes of dangerous smoke into the United States.

Scientists say there is no question that this cacophony was caused by climate change — or that it will continue to intensify as the planet warms. Research shows that human greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from burning fossil fuels, have raised Earth’s temperature by about 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels. Unless humanity radically transforms the way people travel, generate energy and produce food, the global average temperature is on track to increase by more than 3 degrees Celsius (5.4 Fahrenheit), according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — unleashing catastrophes that will make this year’s disasters seem mild.

The only question, scientists say, is when the alarms will finally be loud enough to make people wake up.

“This is not the new normal,” said Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. “We don’t know what the new normal is. The new normal will be what it is once we do stop burning fossil fuels … and we’re nowhere near doing that.”….

Read the full article here.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 14 July 2023, p 22:

Natural disasters and extreme weather are thrashing the northern hemisphere as temperature records rapidly topple. Floods are overwhelming parts of Asia and Europe, fires are ravaging the US, sea surface temperatures off Europe are the hottest on record and the global average temperature has been at a record high four times in the past week.

Drought is sapping northern parts of China and heatwaves are paralysing cities at the same time deadly floods displace thousands in the south. It's just a taste of what's to come as climate change worsens.

Marine heatwaves

The ingredients for the catastrophic weather events in the northern hemisphere have been brewing in global oceans for months. In the lead-up to Earth's hottest week in recorded history, between July 3 and 9 this year, 40 per cent of the world's oceans were stewing through severe marine heatwaves.

"A big part of the fact that we've got these records occurring is because the oceans are so warm," said marine heatwave expert Associate Professor Alex Sen Gupta from UNSW's Climate Change Research Centre. "It means it's very likely that this is going to be the warmest year on record."

Much of the North Atlantic suffered the most extreme marine heatwaves in history. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called a Category 5 (beyond extreme) heatwave in waters west of Ireland as temperatures climbed 5 degrees above the June average.

The record marine heat in the Atlantic spurred the formation of Tropical Storm Bret, the most eastward ever tropical storm this early in the year. Bret churned westward and swept through the Caribbean, damaging water infrastructure in Barbados and shuttering schools in St Lucia.

The ocean heatwaves have a high chance of holding strong for months, potentially contributing to bursts of damaging rain or intensifying heatwaves in Britain and Europe; one of either extremes. The warm water will mix deeper down into the ocean and have global effects - including on Arctic sea ice - for months.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that by September, 50 per cent of the world's oceans could be experiencing marine heatwaves. The normal global rate is 10 per cent.

Weatherzone meteorologist Yoska Hernandez said the sea surface temperatures off Australia are the warmest on record, about 0.3 to 0.5 degrees warmer than last year.

Warm oceans are particularly concerning because they increase moisture in the atmosphere, which can lead to more intense rain events. In the past two weeks, major floods have swept across the US, China, Japan, Europe and Pakistan. Hernandez said the drivers behind the rain events were all separate, but all occurred in the context of climate change.

For example, the Pakistan event has been the result of seasonal monsoonal rains, with as much as six months' of rain falling in 18 hours over some cities.

The floods in the north of America have been driven by an intense front moving over the region, dumping a lot of rain. There's a lot of moisture in the atmosphere driven by the warming ocean temperatures.

In Spain, a large thunderstorm has resulted in flash flooding across Zaragoza in the country's northeast - with about 64mm falling over some parts in a few hours. This is almost the average rainfall during summer for the country.

Last week, there were four days in which Earth's average temperature reached record highs. The global average temperature hit 17.2 degrees on Thursday, July 6, surpassing the 17.18-degree record set on July 4 and equalled on July 5, according to data from the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyser. The previous record of 17.01 degrees was set on Monday, July 3.

The data relies on satellite information and computer simulations to measure the world's condition. It is, however, worth noting NOAA said it could not yet validate the data but that the agency recognised the warm period was due to climate change.

"Combined with El Niño and hot summer conditions, we're seeing record warm surface temperatures being recorded at many locations across the globe," the agency said last week.

The World Meteorological Organisation, a specialised agency of the UN, declared the El Niño event last week. It's one of the most important drivers of unusual weather over the entire globe. In the southern hemisphere, El Niño tends to have a drying effect, but in the northern hemisphere it can increase rainfall.

For most of Australia, El Niño brings dry weather, increasing bushfire risk. But in other parts of the world it leads to wetter conditions, as in southern America.

The Bureau of Meteorology is yet to formally declare an El Niño event, but is expected to do so in the coming weeks. The agency has different criteria than other international weather agencies.

Sen Gupta said it was unusual so many weather events associated with El Niño, including fires and marine heatwaves, were striking before the weather system had even formed (the system has a 90 per cent chance of fully taking hold in the second half of the year).

Countries including Australia were warned to prepare for bad fire seasons. North America is currently in the midst of its most catastrophic fire season ever, which has seen nearly 4000 fires tear across Canada. Smoke spewed from the incineration of 9.5 million hectares and caused the worst air pollution in large swathes of the US in recorded history, draping cities such as New York in orange clouds of smog last month.

Last week in Beijing, as heat records topple across Asia, the government ordered a pause in outdoor work as the city hit a 10-day streak of days above 35 degrees, at the same time floods carried off cars and destroyed buildings, killing at least a dozen people and displaced thousands more in central and southern China.

Pinpointing the effect of climate change on one weather event is a difficult science, but a network of global researchers from the World Weather Attribution zeroed in on a four-day heatwave that killed 13 people. They concluded that human-induced climate change made the deadly heat 30 times more likely. (Another 96 people died from heat-related conditions in India in June.)

Tipping point

It's a question we keep coming back to as records tumble.

Dr Nandini Ramesh, a senior research scientist at CSIRO Data61, said it's important to understand what a tipping point is.

"A tipping point is when you push something until it can't be undone and it exacerbates further warming. An example is the west Antarctic ice sheet collapsing, which would cause irreversible effects on ocean circulation and climate," she said…..

"The ocean will [have] almost constant marine heat waves if we keep on pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. We have to continually update what we class as a marine heatwave or, or go to more extreme definitions."

More than 61,000 people died because of last year's brutal summer heat waves across Europe, according to a study in the journal Nature Medicine. The findings suggest that two decades of efforts in Europe to adapt to a hotter world have failed to keep up with the pace of global warming. Extreme heat had been expected that summer based on how much the planet had warmed in the past decade, the report notes. This trend is likely to continue.

"Having a warmer atmosphere makes both intense rain and heat waves worse," Ramesh said. "It will push us into temperatures that are dangerous to the human body."

GCB Constructions not out of the woods yet? Still no completion date for Uniting's seniors living development in Yamba.

 

Artist's rendition of planned Uniting retirement/seniors living complex

IMAGE: CVC/Clarence Valley Independent, 30 October 2019

In 2020 the Uniting Church announced the extension of its “Caroona” aged care residential facility in Yamba to include a co-located complex of 34 villas and 50 one, two and three-bedroom apartments with a recreational area.

The building contractor chosen GCB Constructions Pty Ltd (located in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Lismore). Presumably because Uniting was satisfied with the previous 12 bed hostel build.

Work ceased on the complex sometime in early 2023 as GCB’s financial difficulties became apparent.

By beginning June GCB was facing “facing multiple court actions from suppliers, including a wind-up action”, however a spokesperson stated “GCB Constructions maintains a solvent position despite cashflow restraints.” “... we expect to have the majority of our teams back on site over the next week or so”.

Nevertheless, it does not appear that GCB Constructions has returned to the Yamba site, as the yet to be fully completed build remains silent and absent of noticeable activity.

On 21 June the Clarence Valley Independent described the situation as Uniting Yamba Road development in limbo with an accompanying photograph of the 50 apartment section of this development.

IMAGE: Clarence Valley Independent, 21 June 2023.
Photo Rodney Stevens

 

Yamba NSW 2023: is anybody listening?

 

The road into Yamba, Clarence Valley NSW, 4 March 2022
Credit: Clarence Valley Council via Storyful in Yahoo!

To put it frankly Yamba township’s flood resilience is a shambles.

Surrounded on all compass points by river, lake or ocean, much of the urban footprint of the town is built on degraded sand hills and reclaimed marshland or swamp across 16.92 sq km of coastal land.

The natural fingers of the Clarence River estuary which intrude into residential streets are now exacerbated by a fringe of canal estates which bring tidal riverwater right up to the artificial soft shore boundary edges of the backyards, side yards or front yards of so many homes and make it possible for riverine flooding to enter more streets than it once did.

Ocean storm surges occurring during destructive East Coast Low storm events are something that are considered almost in passing when it comes to resilience planning and flood risk management. Even though authorities are aware that days of heavy rainfall leading to soil saturation accompanied by strong seas result in est. 1 in 1,000 chance that land slippage will affect sections of Yamba Hill & environs public and private property – including residential dwellings. Such an event can coincide with riverine and stormwater flooding in wider Yamba.

The Lower Clarence River floodplain spans 500km². That is a substantial floodplain and climate change modelling in BMT Lower Clarence Flood Model Update 2013 indicates that all along the lower river peak flood levels are expected to increase in 1% AEP events.

The natural protection of Yamba’s 690ha natural flood storage area has over time been eaten away by extensive landfill earthworks being created in preparation for housing another 2,000-2,500 people in West Yamba. While completed large scale earthworks elsewhere in Yamba are contributing to increased stormwater flooding adding to the volume of flood water flowing in from the Clarence River and into internal waterways and floodways of a town whose current population is 6,388 men women and children living in a density of 377.6 persons per sq km.

Coping with the town’s street plan and road surface heights which lead to predictable internal road closures during major flooding. These closures will inevitably occur ahead of any official advice to immediately evacuate during a Lower Clarence River flood. Currently it appears such emergency advice is not planned to be given until flood height reaches 2.1m at Maclean – at which point Yamba’s only evacuation route is highly likely to be closed in both directions.

In 2022 any evacuation by vehicle ahead of a flood front was calculated to take a minimum of one hour for the journey to Maclean via Yamba Road and the Pacific Highway to be completed. A journey that in good conditions might take twenty minutes. [C. Landers, Clarence Valley Council correspondence, dated 30 June 2022]

When it comes to Yamba residents and visitors; state & local government along with emergence services have placed the primary emphasis on “self-help" when coping with rising floodwaters or a need to evacuate, due to limited SES resources being spread across the valley.

Added to this is the fact that Yamba's flood heights expected ahead of active flood fronts and actual flood front heights as they reach the town are broad estimations. Because the town has to rely on the Maclean flood gauge further inland due to the strong tidal movement at the river mouth which is said to distort any flood calculations derived from the Yamba tidal gauge situated in the vicinity of the start of the southern breakwater wall.

Yamba is an accident waiting to happen and, it does not inspire confidence, when reading between the lines of the following newspaper article it seems that Clarence Valley Council administration is reluctant to obtain a written record of the lived experience of the wider population in Yamba over the last three decades. Something that would complement the data contained in the anticipated report by BMT WBM Pty Ltd.

Clarence Valley Independent, 17 May 2023:

The Yamba Community Action Network Yamba CAN Inc is urging Clarence Valley Council to conduct a flood survey of all residents on the Yamba floodplain so it can be incorporated in the updated Clarence River Flood Study and Flood Model which are currently being prepared.

Consideration of the impacts of the devastating floods in February and March 2022 will be factored into council’s new Flood Study and Flood Model, and Yamba CAN Inc believes the studies would be better informed if a survey was done to understand the impacts on individual residences.

When Yamba CAN recently discovered a flood study being conducted by Coffs Harbour City Council of residents in the Moonee Creek catchment area, members questioned why CVC couldn’t do the same.

Flooding impacts areas of Yamba differently, so to get a comprehensive picture of how the entire Yamba floodplain is affected, Yamba CAN Inc suggests CVC adopt a similar model to Coffs Harbour City Council, by asking each household to describe how they were impacted.

Questions in the Moonee Creek flood survey include: how long have you lived in the region; have you experienced flooding within the Moonee Creek catchment; have you experienced any other flooding event; please provide a short description of any flooding you have experienced; whether your home/business, garage, yard was flooded; were you able to drive your vehicle to safety; what areas of the community are most at risk of flooding; have you noticed any changes in the frequency or severity of flooding in your area and to provide photos and depths of the flooding.

From answers to these questions, Yamba CAN Inc asserts CVC could develop a comprehensive flood model of how individual residences are impacted in times of flood.

The important information obtained from the survey would assist with any upgrading of west Yamba’s stormwater drainage system.

Yamba CAN Inc sent a letter to CVC General Manager Laura Black, and all Clarence Valley Councillors calling for a flood survey of residents living on the Yamba floodplain to be included in the updated Flood Study and Flood Model.

“It has come to Yamba CAN Inc’s attention of another flood study being undertaken by Coffs Harbour City Council in the Moonee Creek Catchment area,” the letter states.

“This flood study includes gathering information from all residents in the Catchment area by means of a survey.

“A similar survey of residents living on the Yamba floodplain is of paramount importance to be included in the current Flood Study and Model, particularly not only in relation to riverine flooding but stormwater flooding during February/March 2022 which occurred two days prior to the Clarence River flood crest reaching Yamba.

“Yamba CAN Inc requests CVC undertake such a survey and the results be considered in the formulation of the current Flood Study and Model.”

A Clarence Valley Council spokesperson said council engaged BMT to undertake flood modelling using the latest available property and event data for the local government area to inform Floodplain Risk Management Plans.

“The plan will be presented to the Council for exhibition, providing opportunity for the community to comment and provide feedback,” the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said council doesn’t plan to do a survey of impacted residents in Yamba.

“Council does not intend to survey individual households in relation to this matter,” the spokesperson said.

“However, we will be undertaking a Yamba Urban Drainage Survey to capture residents experiences in recent events, as we are currently doing for Iluka.”

Quote of the Month

 “..we’ve all had our lived experiences of floods of varying intensities. Now as intelligent human beings I think we can do better than what we’ve been doing.

We continue to build on floodplains and expect somehow some sort of different result. 

We talk about flood resilience and flood resilience is not living with its fingers crossed-type mentality.

Fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain too hard, too much. Fingers crossed that when it does the supermarket shelves are not stripped out. Fingers crossed that we can evacuate ourselves and if we can’t, fingers crossed the SES is going to come and look after us. And fingers crossed that if I do need medical help or to get out of Yamba, that road is not broken by flood water.”

[Cr. Jeff Smith, speaking in support of a motion to rezone undeveloped land in West Yamba Urban Release Area within the town’s natural flood storage area, Clarence Valley Council Ordinary Monthly Meeting,18 April 2023] 

March 2023 is shaping up to be a record heat month for NSW

 

According to ABC News New South Wales is on track to hit hottest March on record after coolest summer in 11 years.

What's behind the March heatwaves?

The reason autumn is doing its best interpretation of summer is complex.

It is essentially a combination of factors playing out simultaneously, including:

• La Niña's demise combined with a break in the monsoon has allowed a lengthy stretch of sunny skies to generate a broad mass of hot air over northern and central Australia

• The westerly winds which circumnavigate Antarctica have expanded during the past few weeks, extending to our southern latitudes and dragging the hot interior air across NSW.

• Water temperatures in the Tasman Sea are at nearly 27C, theoretically warm enough to support a tropical cyclone. This means that, even when winds are onshore, it is still warmer than normal.

The most surprising aspect is the westerlies, which have spent the past few warm seasons banished to the Southern Ocean.

The recent absence of westerly winds was a critical factor in Sydney's record wet 2022, a year dominated by moist easterly winds and rain….

It is definitely unseasonably warm in Yamba – on land and in the ocean. The hottest day to date this month was Saturday 18^th March which was a day where minimum air temperature was 22.6°C and maximum air temp 34.4°C, with a relative humidity of 93% at 9am.

By comparison March 2022 saw highest minimum and maximum air temperatures at a milder 22.6°C and 29.6°C respectively, with a relative humidity of 97% at 9am.

According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology the average daytime air temperature in the month of March for the 146 years between 1877 to 2023 was minimum 19.3°C and maximum 26.1°C, with a relative humidity of 80% at 9am.