IN THE SKIES
Matt Golinski brings a new perspective to one of our oldest olfactory senses.
WHAT SMELLS
. . . e k Li O
n a recent trip down the Bruce Highway from North Queensland I was playing the trivia games they have on big signs on the side of the road to ‘stay alert’. The idea is that there is a question on one sign to fire your brain and keep you alert and then the answer is on another sign about a kilometre further on.
I’ve done them a hundred times before but luckily I have such a bad memory that I don’t remember the answer by the next time I’m driving that road. At one point I clearly wasn’t being alert, because I missed the question and only caught the answer, which was ‘The smell of rain’ Having nothing else to do on my long drive but listen to AM radio and wait for the next Q&A, I began pondering what the question may have been. ‘What makes us smile with relief late on a summers afternoon when we’ve sweated through a 40 degree day?’ ‘What sends us running to the Hills Hoist to get the clothes off before a IN Noosa Magazine
downpour?’ or ‘What lifts the spirits of a farmer who has been watching the sky for weeks in the hope that their crops will get a good drink before it’s too late.’ The smell of rain has become all too familiar over the past few summers – we’ve taken it for granted, even resented it as it signals more flooded roads, cancelled events that have been months in the planning, and decimates harvests that in turn have a direct flow on effect on the availability and price of the food we consume. It can strike fear into the hearts of those who are still just cleaning up their houses and properties from the last unprecedented rain event, and fuel anxiety through its sheer unpredictability. 40
But if the weather experts are correct, we’d better get used to that smell over the next few months. We might just need to accept that there’s really not very much we can do to control it, and learn to embrace the rain’s sweet, minerally aroma. Because while it may literally put a dampener on our alfresco dining plans, the alternative to a wet summer season is drought and bushfires. So let’s focus on the positives - water tanks and dams are full - including the big ones that supply water to our towns and farms. Days are substantially cooler when it’s pouring down. And we get to catch up on movies, books and magazines when we’re stuck inside. And it drives home the need to