December 3, 2010

When we arrived on the Sunshine Coast about 15 or so months ago, water restrictions were introduced to Queensland for the first time in history, or the first time in living memory, or whatever first time it was. Anyways, it was pretty dry up here in the tropics until the big WR day came into being, and then, ever since, it’s rained – I think it’s the wettest year in living memory, or maybe since records began! Naturally the drought had to break the year we arrived. Rain and two small boys is never a good combination. But, even with all the rain that’s fallen, they haven’t lifted the water restrictions yet – hello! Anyways, people living to the south of Queensland have been enduring water restrictions for some time, as Australia has just come to the end of a decade of drought. It’s ended now right? Most people in Australia are very responsible in drought time – saving water every step of the way, like taking family showers, never showering for more than three minutes, washing sparingly, watering the garden with grey water, not washing their cars, not putting sprinklers on in the heat of the day, etc… Australian’s commitment to the environment is something that has always impressed me, but then, with the ozone hole overhead, we feel the impact every time we step outdoors. But bring in the Queenslanders and we have a different story. Most people living near us love gardening. I personally hate gardening, so don’t understand the passion, but there you go. The gardens in our neighbourhood (except ours) were amazing. Just look at the grass. The perfection is almost impossible to comprehend and would put most championship golf courses to shame. In fact, many neighbours spent hours and hours and hours working towards this perfection. I’d rather put red hot sticks in my eye, but hey, that’s just me. One of the big no nos with the introduction of water restrictions was the use of irrigation systems. You know the ones that are planted under the ground and you set the timer to get them going? No problem for us because 1. We couldn’t work out how to bloody use it and 2. Even if we did work it out, every metre or so along the line there was a hole in the system that was by now above ground. So if we turned ours on, we’d have a marsh instead of a garden. But our neighbours’ perfect gardens had perfect systems and the sneaky fuckers didn’t think the new laws applied to them. Oh but they knew. Steve, who often has to get up at the hideous hour of 4am to travel for work, was witness to their deception. Everyone just reset their systems to go on when “no one” could see them and every morning around 4am, the gardens of Noosa Waters were replenished with this life giving force. I almost preferred our neighbour. We rarely saw them because it was a holiday home but the gardens never missed a servicing by the most extensive gardening team I’ve ever seen or heard. But at least they were honest. They just kept their system going at 10am every morning and 5pm every night – the boys loved it. So much for all for one and one for all. You don’t mess with people’s gardens in these parts and even if everyone was dying of thirst, I’m sure my neighbours (or ex neighbours now), would still ignore the rules. Sometimes I admire people who break the rules, and often I break stupid rules myself, but other times it’s just obnoxious and selfish, and it’s definitely the latter I’ve witnessed in Noosa. Yours, without the bollocksAndrea