Australian summer 2016-17 is officially over, and it has been a weird and unsettled one. Sarah Perkins Kirkpatrick, research fellow at the University of New South Wales with a specialsm in climate extremes related to droughts and heat waves in Australia is here with Dirt Radio this week to explain why.

The Yarra River has its own advocate. He’s Andrew Kelly, the Yarra Riverkeeper.The river runs for 242 kilometres through the Yarra Valley, across Melbourne's suburbs, and to the CBD. Environmentalists have been lobbying for better planning rules for years, particularly around the 41-kilometre stretch between Richmond and Warrandyte, where development pressure is the greatest. Now there’s the Yarra River Action Plan –  just announced by the Andrew’s government.