marsden-1, page-12

now robjb5,
save the bitchy comments for someone else.
I have retired to Cairns, almost exactly one year ago.

Before that, I worked in Mt Isa for 5 years - and Mt isa is only 500 km from Tennant Creek. Southern Gerogina Basin lies between these two towns, either side of the main highway between these towns. This area is almost exactly 1,000 km south from Darwin CBD but - due to the Gulf of Carpentaria (that big stretch of water to the north east) it does get a 'wet' season, including some massive cyclones in the Gulf that can turn into rain depressions over places like Mt Isa - and the southern Georgina Basin. The Georgina River is the only river in this area that heads south into the Channel country - all the rest head north into the the Gulf.
Mt Isa, being a mining town in a semi-desert area, means I learnt an awful lot about mining projects I had never even heard of before living in the Isa. Some of the biggest mining operations in Australia are within 300 km of Mt Isa, including the Mt Isa mine itself which is smack bang in the middle of the town. Hence the lead poisoning issues.

Prior to the Isa, I lived and worked in Darwin for 20 years, plus a short stint in Alice Springs and later, Katherine.
My adult sons still live in Darwin.
So as you can tell, most of my working life has been spent in the NT or Qld. I love the 'wet tropics' which is why I retired here - that plus the incredibly cheap real estate, thanks to the GFC hitting Cairns for six (highest unemployment in QLd and probably, Australia).

For the record, when they say 'dry' season in this beautiful part of Australia, they mean NO rain whatsoever....nil, nix, zero - from early May to early September. The 'wet' can set in from late September/early October but usually, you get what the locals call 'The Buildup' (ask anyone from the NT about this) where you get oppressive humidity and it threatens to rain each day .........but, it all fades away (hence the term 'The buildup'. The 'wet' can arrive late, as it did this year but believe me, the 'dry' means exactly that - no rain of any kind. Melbourne or Sydney it is not.

End of lecture on the 'wet' and the 'dry' in this part of Australia. Check it out, if you doubt me.