Map courtesy of PIRSA
The map above shows Goyder's Line, which is defined by Wiki as 'a boundary line across South Australia corresponding to a rainfall boundary believed to indicate the edge of the area suitable for agriculture. North of Goyder's Line, the rainfall is not reliable enough, and the land is only suitable for grazing and not cropping.'
A recent review by the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) and CSIRO suggested that the line could shift as far as Clare Valley by 2070 under the most extreme climate change scenario. However, it is more likely that the line would stay roughly where it is now or move just north of Jamestown.
Read more about George Woodroffe Goyder here.
There's an article in farmonline.com discussing Goyder's line and climate change:
Goyder's Line on the move with climate change
and from ABC Rural: Goyders line could shift to Clare
Many thanks to Luke Walker for alerting me to the story of Goyder's Line.
please could you send me the link or pics themselves of the houses being buried by sand dunes...i would like to research this as part of an ongoing artwork re landscape and environment...
i am an artist
Going to take a while Paul. Research on drought tolerant varieties has ramped up since this global warming thing began. Of course, correlation is not causation, but it is conveniently co-incidental. With the rate of research going on, we will either hold Goyders line, or extend it, depending in if the world is really heating up. Time will tell.
Besides, some of us desert dwellers prefer heat to cold, and might be a bit hard to shift.
Thanks for that link to Tassie rainfall, cinders. It adds weight to my preferred position on adapting to global warming; namely, keep on burning coal as cheaply as we can until mainland Australia is rendered unfit for human habitation by global warming, then transfer the entire population over to Tasmania, preferably in bark canoes (that's if there is any bark left).
What do you think? There has to be room for 50 million down there.
I was not aware of the conflict between early Conservator of SA Forests John Brown and Mr Goyder that the line is named after until doing some research on why present day South Australians would think that sustainable timber harvesting is akin to forest destruction.
The conservator was a title in the late 19th century used in the British Empire including SA for the forest scientist put in charge to conserve the forest for timber production and other values, to prevent needless tree clearing and to encourage sustainable management.
The Conservator clashed with Mr. George Goyder, the Chairman of the Forestry Board, on whether trees increased local precipitation. His efforts to plant up the plains north of Quorn to increase rainfall were publicly supported but strongly opposed by Goyder who was trying to confine agricultural development south of Goyder's Line.
Information about the early conservator and the issues confronting the industry can be found in the history pages of Forestry SA. http://www.forestry.sa.gov.au/conservators.stm
Just about all of SA is drought declared, Goyder or not!