The heavy rainfall that has affected large parts of remote South Australia may have disrupted the travel plans of some grey nomads, but it has also brought a spectacular and near instant transformation to the landscape.
With many places recording between 100 and 200 millimetres of rain in less than a week, the region’s flora and fauna has been quick to react.
Ranger for North-East Outback Parks, Erik Dahl in Innamincka, told the ABC he was ‘astonished’ at how quickly life has flourished again in the Outback.
“When the swales do fill up with water you get these great carpets of green, it’s just astonishingly different,” he said. “The amount of insect life is phenomenal, lots of moths and butterflies already, and thousands upon thousands of flying ants and things that are out and about.”
The frogs and lizards are also all running around and basking, filling up on the insects.
At Arid Recovery, a reserve restoring the native ecosystem near Roxby Downs, manager Kylie Piper expects they will see a boom in native species.
“Once the vegetation starts to come back they’ll get a spike in animals out there as well, all part of the boom and bust cycle,“ she told the ABC. “It’s the survival of things in the arid zone, they have evolved to cope with periods of immerse dry, and then the deluge and big wets that come through as well.”
The recent rains have been the first heavy showers that many parts of Outback South Australia have seen for two years.
