Yeah, I've been following this since last night. It's just awful! The ABC News coverage is pretty extensive (Warning - some of the news reports are pretty harrowing - click with care for triggers) and the extent of the damage is just staggering. Whole towns/villages wiped out completely.

I have a friend whose family has a farm in Whittlesea near Melbourne and he said yestereday that he was heading out there to take care of the fire plans. I was exceedinly relieved when he popped up on Facebook to say that everything was ok, he and the cows were fine.

Oh and I have a sister in the North of Austrlia in North Cairns who is being threatened with Flooding! As Mark said, it's a country that really does know how to do extreme weather.

i've compiled some more links here. really mostly what people can do is donate money to the various appeals - and please don't forget the wildlife!

Thanks for pointing it out, I hadn't seen the news in a while - hope everyone you know is OK.