Red Dawn

Sydney and as far north and South as a few hundred kilometres awoke this morning to a blanket of red dust caused by a massive duststorm that blew in from the Western regions. It was hectic. The 2 photos above don't do justice - the air was thick with dust and contaminated everything. We luckily slept with our ensuite bathroom window open and not our sliding doors as we normally do, but the dust taste was everywhere even so. The proportions were reminiscent of the biblical plagues - it is estimated that the amount of dust being moved across Sydney was 75000 tons per hour and the air was 20 times the hazardous rate. Most Sydneysiders had never seen anything like this before, so it is not normal, thankfully. The iron ore content from the soil is what gives it the red / orange glow. Excuse my poor photos, but I didn't want to open the door to let the dust in. They have lifted water restrictions here until Monday to allow everybody to wash down there houses. Sydney Airport was closed most of the day to international air traffic, ferrys were stopped and traffic was chaos. One odd thing, the sheep in the countryside were red as well and the problem is that once contaminated, their value decreases as the ore stains their sheepskin irreparably. Most of it had cleared by afternoon, so life is returning to normal. Except for the poor sheep and their red jumpers. They must be like so embarrassed.. Anyway.