How Queensland is being soaked by an 'unprecedented monsoonal burst

The north Queensland coast is in the midst of an extreme rainfall event that has forced the Ross River Dam near Townsville to open its gates, adding to the flooding already underway.

Floods are threatening hundreds of homes in the Townsville area.

Here's how it has happened – and why.

It's not over yet but, as of 9am local time on Monday, Townsville Airport had recorded more than one metre of rain in the past week.

All up, that tally reached 1052 millimetres, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

The total beat the previous weekly high from January 1998 of 886 millimetres although that event included the "night of Noah' when a record daily tally of 548.8 millimetres fell.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam and Nigel Gladstone - “How Queensland is being soaked by an 'unprecedented monsoonal burst’.”

Premier’s bizarre dump on waste plan

Premier Daniel Andrews’ derisive dismissal of a proposal to extend a sensible initiative to reduce food waste by adding it to garden matter and collecting it weekly is perplexing. Not only does it appear to defy logic and evidence, it is contradictory to his government’s policy.

An increasing number of councils are moving from weekly to fortnightly collection of household rubbish, and vice-versa for food waste, which is being collected with garden matter and composted.

This means households are are environmentally recycling food waste to provide nutrition for parks, gardens and food growers, rather than putting it into the same bin that goes to landfill – where it creates huge amounts of methane, one of the worst greenhouse gasses, and provides no benefit.

Read the Editorial from The Age - “Premier’s bizarre dump on wastePremier’s bizarre dump on waste plan.”