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Marcus Barber: Is that where Kowanyama‟s rain comes from or does it come from another
place.
Philip Yam: I think they come from here, right through there.
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Marcus Barber: Do they get as much rain up there at Oriners as you get down here [at
Highbury]? Is it drier?
Colin Hughes: No, I wouldn‟t say it is drier. I‟d say it probably be, at that latitude up north, it
would be probably getting on average an inch more than we get here. For every latitude
you go north you can add on a couple of inches.
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Marcus Barber: Is it drier up there or wetter? We got no rain gauges up there.
Philip Yam: You get a lot a rain. Sometimes you get rain up there in the winter too.
Marcus Barber: Do you get rain down here [at Kowanyama] in the winter time?
Philip Yam: Here not much. But up there you will get a big one. It can rain for couple of
days up there. Just showers you know, not very heavy. But it will go for a couple of days.
Marcus Barber: Where does that rain come from? Does it come from the east?
Philip Yam: Yes, it always comes from the east.
Marcus Barber: Is that the same for the big monsoons, or do they come from another
direction?
Philip Yam: Yes, I think it‟s the same, because you get rain up there through the winter.
Sometimes it gets cold up there during the winter, very cold.
Marcus Barber: Could that be one reason why the ti tree like it more?
Philip Yam: Probably. A lot of that area still got moisture in the ground.
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They get that early storm before us, for some reason. Down in this country here, down
towards Strathmay country, they get early storms before we get it, on the east coast.
Fred Coleman
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Marcus Barber: Is the rain similar across all of those stations- Koolatah, Oriners, Dixie?
Cecil Hughes: When the storm season‟s on you might 3 or 4 inches over there, then over
here there‟s nothing. But when the monsoons come down, and they usually come down,
well then the rain is spread over the whole area. Then there‟s not much difference
between the rains down near Koolatah and up at Oriners because the main rain comes
from the monsoons and that covers everything. Some years the monsoon is very weak or
does not come down well you get back to storms. There might be more storms here than
there is there or here and there.
Marcus Barber: So in a weak monsoon year, then you might get more patchy rain where
one place might get a few big storms and the other ones don‟t
Cecil Hughes: That‟s right.
Marcus Barber: So it might be a bad monsoon but Oriners or Dixie might get three storms
that year and it will be better there than elsewhere?
Cecil Hughes: That‟s right.
Marcus Barber: But when the monsoons come properly, then it is consistent?
Cecil Hughes: Consistent right across
Working Knowledge at Oriners Station, Cape York
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