"The problem was the severe drought over several years, the extreme dryness (lowest humidity <10%) over the months preceding, "
Definitely caused by burning fossil fuels !
”All through 1888 the weather continued very hot and dry. The shortage of water in country districts gave cause for alarm. Down at Yass the river stopped running; creeks and springs which had not been dry for a decade or more ceased to run; ugly cracks opened up on the banks of creek beds; up Kosciusko way water in the Murrumbidgee dropped so low that sheep were walking across it; sheep were dying from lack of water and want of feed. “
(Manning Clark’s History of Australia (6 vols), abridged by Cathcart, M., 1993, Melbourne University Press, p.379)
