Not the Outback, but Sydney’s CBD: Shocking photo shows how a massive pond in the heart of the city has turned bone dry amid worst drought in history
- The Busbys Pond in Centennial Park is normally a lush oasis home to birds
- But today the iconic pond lies empty and cracked after drying up in December
- Busbys Pond was built by convicts in 1824 as the city’s main water supply
Confronting before and after pictures show how a pond in Sydney has been depleted by drought.
The Busbys Pond in Centennial Park is normally a lush oasis home to scores of birds and plants including reeds and lilies.
But today it lies empty, cracked and dry.
Before and after: The Busbys Pond in Centennial Park is normally a lush oasis home to scores of birds and plants including reeds and lilies. But today it lies empty, cracked and dry
A picture of the barren pond was posted on Reddit with the caption: ‘The saddest walk through a park I’ve ever done.’
Commenters were shocked by how much the pond had changed.
‘This is insane. I expect to see these images in the outback. Not here,’ one wrote.
Centennial Park is the city’s largest and popular with joggers and cyclists.
Busbys Pond, built by convicts in 1824 as the city’s main water supply, is usually the nesting place of dozens of waterfowl and pied cormorants.
It is also home to coots, dusky moorhens and purple swamphens – but none were to be seen.
Two ducks at Busbys Pond in Centennial Park in Sydney
Water drains into the pond from Lily Pond and Randwick Pond – and also flows in from the Equestrian Centre and Fox Studios at Moore Park.
But the pond dried up in December after last year saw Australia’s driest November on record, following three years of drought.
As well as depleting our waterways, the drought is causing Australia’s horror bushfire season which started earlier than normal this year.
Firefighters used a break from searing temperatures on Tuesday to strengthen containment lines around huge wildfires as the financial and environmental costs of the crisis mounted.
More than 10.3 million hectares (25.5 million acres) of land an area the size of South Korea – have been razed by bushfires across the country in recent weeks, according to the latest data, with the southeast particularly hard hit.
Firefighters on the ground were making the most of a few days of cooler temperatures in the southeast to prepare for the expected return of heat and wind later this week that is expected to fan existing blazes and spark new ones.
‘We need to remain vigilant,’ Andrew Crisp, Victoria state’s emergency management commissioner, told reporters.
‘We talk about benign conditions, and the fire is suppressed, but it is still there. It is still tinder dry.’
Thousands of people have been left homeless, while many in rural towns have spent days without electricity, telecommunications and, in some cases, drinking water. Military-coordinated rescue and support efforts are going on.
Fire crews put out spot fires on January 4 in Sarsfield, Victoria