The Catholic Church in Australia is dedicating the month of November 2019 as a time to pray for those affected by crippling drought conditions and to pray for the gift of rain. The Bureau of Meteorology says that, on some measures, the current drought is the worst in 100 years or more, with most parts of Australia’s eastern states declared to be in drought.
No one is untouched by the drought. In recent weeks in Sydney we have experienced the effects of the bushfires burning in our state. The deteriorating air quality impacts on everyone's health. The prolonged lack of rain in many areas has contributed to dryness of the vegetation which makes the bush and grasslands more susceptible to fire. Areas of rainforest have been burnt, which is a first in most people’s living memory. Many homes have been destroyed and lives have been lost.
At the School Assembly, Ms Refalo reminded the students that as city dwellers we do not feel the full impact of the drought. The supermarkets still have plenty of food and we are not living with severe water restrictions. In the country, the situation is very different. I have not always resided in Sydney and have spent four years living in country Queensland in Kingaroy which is about 210 km north west of Brisbane. Kingaroy is famous for its peanuts and navy beans which most people would know in the form of tinned baked beans.
In Kingaroy, we lived in a rented house and were lucky to have a water tank. Some of the teachers who taught my children at the local Catholic school were also renting but their rental did not have a water tank, so they had to buy all their drinking water. As we lived in the town we were connected to the town water which was used for all other purposes. The town water was very hard and had a high salt content. There was no need to separate red items in the wash, the whites never turned pink! It was different from my experience of living in other parts of Australia but I did learn first hand of what was happening for those living on the land.
For those on the land, there was no connection to the town water supply and they were totally dependant on their rainwater tanks. I do remember one family with four children living on a farm, where they could only wash their dishes once a day and use of the washing machine had to be restricted. It was very different from my childhood when on a hot day we were allowed to use the sprinkler in the back garden and play with the running water.
Farms that had been held for many generations were sold because feeding the cattle was too expensive and the milk prices were too low. All farming families needed someone to be working in town to ensure that the family had a regular income. If possible those on the original soldier settlements would buy neighbouring properties to make their operations more financially feasible by upscaling.
The shortage of water has been a problem that has persistently plagued Australia. This year students in 9RE6 and 9RE8 trialled one of the learning cycles for the new Religious Education Curriculum. Students identified an element of creation that was important to them and then in teams through the inquiry model investigated some of the challenges which we face and developed plans of action to improve the situation. These classes were responding to Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato’ Si. At the end of the 2019 World Youth Day in Panama, Pope Francis encouraged the youth of the world to be agents of change, today not tomorrow. On the Feast of the Annunciation he released his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation to Young People, Christus Vivit. As young women of Mercy, our students follow Venerable Catherine McAuley’s example and are guided by Pope Francis to share their gifts and talents to create a better world for all.
