Australia

When the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) declared an El Niño event in September, there were warnings of a hot and dry summer.

But for thousands of Queenslanders especially — from the storm-ravaged south-east to the flooded Far North — that's not been the case at all.

As a Brisbanite, I can definitely vouch for this one. It's literally raining right this second, and our backyard is already a swamp...

tl;dr:

Over the past month, while Queensland faced record-breaking rainfall, South Australia and Western Queensland sweated through heatwave conditions as bushfires burned in the west.

Dr Brown attributed the variation of El Niño experiences across the country to an average of hot and dry conditions and not a totality.

"When we talk about dry conditions from an El Niño, it's not dry everywhere – it's dry on average," Dr Brown said.

I hope the comet becomes visible

Your good news story for today. 🐱⛵️

Twelve Australians were among more than 370 people who escaped a burning airliner after a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Five of the six crew on board the Coast Guard plane died in the incident.

...

Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that five of the Coast Guard aircraft's crew had died, while the 39-year-old captain of the plane escaped but was injured.

Imagine being that guy :-\

I swear I'll fix the bot at some point

A spokesperson for Court Services Victoria (CSV) said hackers accessed an area of the court system's audio-visual archive. That would mean recordings of hearings including witness testimony from highly sensitive cases may have been accessed or stolen.

Good news everyone! House prices are becoming unaffordable at a slightly lower rate than previous!

Australian house and apartment values bounced back in 2023, increasing by 8.1 per cent nationally over 2023, according to new data.

...

While the 2023 results represent a significant increase in home values across Australia compared to 2022, they pale in comparison to the 24.5 per cent surge recorded in 2021.

If these trends continue, I'm only 75 years away from affording my own house 😎

Lots of interesting discussions happen here covering a wide range of topics affecting daily life in Australia.

While there haven't been many cases where we've had trouble with moderation, I'd like to offer the opportunity to anyone interested in helping to keep conversations on track. This would involve ensuring that the rules are followed and deciding how to deal with offenses on a case-by-case basis.

If you would like to volunteer as a moderator please reply to this thread.

Applications are currently closed and will be reopened when necessary.

As if the Gold Coast City Council actually cares

Cabinet papers from 2003 show the government pursued talks without consulting peak Indigenous body – which it then abolished

Good news stories of 2023 in Australia

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-31/2023-good-news-wrap-up/103269772

@australia
#GoodNews

Are these only a WA thing?

Any Eastern states peeps know about these and are able to dispell this notion?

Kawadji Wimpa dance team at the Laura Quinkan dance festival in far north Queensland.

Photograph: Wayne Quillam/The Guardian

@australia
#Australia
#Queensland
#FirstNations

Matt Bruce, who was in dispute with Byron Shire council over his tiny home near Lismore, NSW.

Photograph: Tajette O’Halloran/The Guardian

@australia
#Australia
#NSW
#TinyHomes

Ajahn Appicchato at his monastery south of Perth. The monks of the Bodhinyana monastery are fighting the WA government over a minerals exploration application in the jarrah forests that overlap the monastery and retreat.

Photograph: Tony McDonough

@australia
#Australia
#WA
#Bodhinyana
#conservation

I picked up a couple of pairs of jeans at the end of year sales.

I paid $20 for one pair, down from $110. Does anyone actually pay that $110? That sounds insane to me.

With the first year of this community coming to a close I've gathered some of our top posts throughout the year. Here's the top 10 posts:

1. YouTube Premium family plan price update ($17.99/month -> $32.99/month!) (by @trk@aussie.zone)
2. The lack of ads! (by @Gbagginsthe3rd@aussie.zone)
3. Can we stop buying these stupid things? Thanks (by @R00bot@lemmy.blahaj.zone
4. Streaming costs are rising, and there are more platforms than ever to choose between. Some people are going back to piracy (by @unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone)
5. ABC shuts down official Twitter accounts due to 'toxic interactions' (by @unionagainstdhmo@aussie.zone)
6. The absolute state of housing in Australia at the minute - rent a caravan in a driveway in a semi-rural locality, only $200/week! (by @trk@aussie.zone)
7. We won’t fix inflation while economists stay in denial about its causes (by @Zagorath@aussie.zone)
8. Gas lobby launches new scare campaign on electrification, saying it will break the grid (by @vividspecter@lemm.ee)
9. Australia will not force adult websites to bring in age verification due to privacy and security concerns (by @Mountaineer@aussie.zone)
10. Australia to prescribe MDMA and psilocybin for PTSD and depression in world first (by @Treevan@aussie.zone)

The Top 10 is really only indicative of what people on other instances (mostly non-Australian) liked, what were your favourite posts this year? What would you like to see more of? And What would you like to see less of?

This year we also had the Voice to Parliament Referendum which lead to the creation of a Megathread and an annoying message from @dalekerrigan@aussie.zone reminding us to use it. What did you think about how the community was run this year? What would you like us to do differently next year?

Thanks for the wonderful year everyone, and I look forward to seeing you all in the years to come. Also a big thanks to the Aussie Zone admins for making this all possible. But most of all, thank you to everyone who posted, commented, upvoted and downvoted for being the life of this community

Really need to fix up the bot, last Weekly Random thread for the year, we're at the end of the first year with Aussie Zone and this community.

“Check surroundings for safety”. Fuck you, man.

Bit of context: bought a charger off ebay and the description stated things would be posted through AusPost. Tracking didn't work, so I messaged the seller and apparently they decided to send through some random company called "PF Logistics" because "Our shipping agency will be send by local shipping method be according to different zone and different post code, that's we can not control." - despite the fact it was going from Sydney to Melbourne

Old mate apparently rocked up at 6:30pm and tossed it over the fence, even though there's a letterbox it would've fit in right there. Then the tracking info didn't bother to inform me it had been delivered until 11am the next morning. Was half tempted to make some shit up about it being broken.