KEY POINTS:
As the worst drought for more than a century grinds on, ancient Aboriginal knowledge is being tapped in an attempt to better understand Australia's capricious climate.
Where meteorologists base their prognostications on satellites and synoptic charts, generations of Aborigines observed the flight of birds and the flowering of
wattle bushes.
Aboriginal understanding of the continent's climate is being harnessed by the Bureau of Meteorology's Indigenous Weather Knowledge project, as Australians pray for rain.
More than two centuries after the start of British colonisation, there is belated recognition that 40,000 years of Aboriginal lore can contribute to the science of understanding the weather. "A month ago when the black cockatoos were flocking and the wattles were flowering, we saw that as signs of rain," said project participant Jeremy Clark, chief executive of the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre in the Grampian mountains of Victoria.
"Sure enough, we've just had two weeks of rain. Short-term, things like that enable us to forecast the weather."
Meteorologists have been tapping into the expertise of Aborigines in the Northern Territory since 2002.
But this is the first time the bureau has drawn on the knowledge of Aborigines in the more populated southeast of the country.
"It's about reading the landscape and the environment through the activities of plants and animals," said Clark, a member of the Djabwurrung tribe.
"It used to be essential for survival - nowadays it's important for the proper management of the land. Environmental signs can tell us if summer will start early or late, and whether it will be shorter or longer than normal."
Australians need all the help they can get.
Last month, Prime Minister John Howard said the country faced an "unprecedentedly dangerous" drought.
Aboriginal expertise is challenging the European concept of four seasons, which the British transplanted to Australia when they arrived in 1788.
The northern hemisphere pattern of spring, summer, autumn and winter sits uncomfortably with the reality of Australia's climate.
Aboriginal tribes, in contrast, recognised up to seven distinct seasons. "Our primary focus is mapping the seasons as they are understood by indigenous people," said the bureau's Dr Harvey Stern.
Aboriginal weathermen claim that their predictions are 90 per cent accurate and as reliable as the television forecasts watched by millions.
To the relief of a parched nation experiencing the worst recorded Big Dry, both Aboriginal weather watchers and the bureau's climatologists are predicting rain over the next few months.
"For most parts of Australia," Dr Stern said, "there's at least a 50 per cent chance of above average rainfall over the next three months."
