Hot Summer Land: Anticipation

Intense fires, drought, rain in unexpected places, and temperature records smashed—this El Niño summer in Australia both lived up to expectations, and surpassed them. In the Hot Summer Land project RN Earshot and ABC Open teamed up to ask our audience—you—to paint us a word picture of how your landscape changed over the three months of summer. You posted over 200 evocative stories from around the country. Some of these were chosen to be part of a three part series, tracking the impact of summer as we lived it. In part one of our series, Hot Summer Land, we travel back in time to the beginning of the season, and hear your stories of fear and anticipation at the start of the antipodean El Niño. Stories in this program are from: Natalie Lincoln - Anticipation Polly Musgrove - October garden Mary Mageau - From our back verandah Viki Cramer - No change coming