Australia: Massive Mildura dust storm leaves Victorian town 'unliveable' amid 40C heat

By Naaman Zhou

As Victoria issued a code red bushfire alert and Melbourne sweltered through a record-equalling November temperature, the residents of Mildura walked out of their homes at midday on Thursday to see a dust storm rolling in.

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Residents told Guardian Australia it was like a “wall of dust”, a danger to asthmatics, and “unliveable”. And, for many, it is not even the worst dust storm this year. In May residents reported a storm as the town’s worst in 40 years.

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“I have been here for 10 years and have never experienced anything like this. We used to have a dust storm a year, this is now a weekly basis. At its worst I couldn’t see across the road. This time the heat, because it is 40C, coupled with the dust just made it unliveable. You couldn’t go outside.” [Sophie Appleby, 35]

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Appleby said the extended drought had devastated farming communities and made the dust storms more frequent.

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