@kurrajong; aged in my seventies and having been fortunate enough to travel most of the World [mostly by foot, train and bus] my life experiences are anything but what you've misrepresented them as being.
From BOM records extending back to 1860, 2006 was NE Victoria's driest year wherein Albury-Wodonga received just 265 mms of rain [ie. desert rainfall]. In 2018 it 395 mms and in 2019 just 397 mms - 45% below a 120 year average. So far in 2020 we've received just 2.6 mms of rainfall as bushfires and enduring drought ravage the region with no end in sight.
The period from 2000 - 2009 was our second driest decade on record behind the 1930-1939 dustbowl with the period 2010-2019 a very close third.
So what's different - surface air temperatures have increased, so too soil dryness and wind speed along with the impact of drought and bushfires - it's HELLISH!
