The Australian desert is green. Not just green – depending on where you look from above, it could also be a marbled(大理石纹的) reddy-pink and blue or yellow-brown with flecks(小斑点) of purple. But green is the most striking colour because the desert is not supposed to look like this.
澳大利亚的沙漠变绿了。不只是绿色——从空中俯瞰，根据视角不同，它还可能呈现出红粉与蓝色交织的大理石纹路，或是黄褐色中点缀着紫色斑点。但绿色是最引人注目的颜色，因为沙漠本不该是这个样子。
It won’t last. But for now, in late September, the deep outback – a celebrated part of the Australian continent that few people get to see – is blanketed in plant life.(但眼下，九月下旬，这片偏远的内陆——澳大利亚大陆上备受赞誉却鲜有人目睹的地区——被植物覆盖。) There is sandhill wattle(金合欢), saltbush and lignum(一种耐旱灌木), and grasses and desert flowers. The vegetation is thickest along hundreds of twisting rivers and creeks that cut across(横穿) the landscape.
这不会持久。但眼下，九月下旬，这片偏远的内陆——澳大利亚大陆上备受赞誉却鲜有人目睹的地区——被植物覆盖。这里有沙丘金合欢、盐灌木和 lignum，还有各种草和沙漠野花。植被最茂密的地方，是数百条蜿蜒曲折、横穿大地的河流与溪涧沿岸。
These rivers and creeks carry water from a prodigiously(异常地、巨大地) wet monsoon(季风) season that brought flooding rains to western Queensland. Rainfall nearly 50% above the long-term average caused havoc, killing livestock and cutting outback tracks, some of which remain underwater.(降雨量比长期平均值高出近50%，造成了严重破坏，牲畜死亡，内陆道路被切断，其中一些至今仍淹没在水下。) But it also filled up three major river systems – the Georgina, the Diamantina and Cooper Creek.
这些河流与溪涧承载着异常湿润的季风季带来的水流，这场季风给昆士兰西部带来了暴雨洪水。降雨量比长期平均值高出近50%，造成了严重破坏，牲畜死亡，内陆道路被切断，其中一些至今仍淹没在水下。但雨水也注满了三大河系——乔治娜河、迪亚曼蒂纳河和库珀溪。
Taking off
起飞
From lake to salt plain
从湖泊到盐滩
Birdlife arrives
鸟类到来
Springs and floodplains
泉眼与洪泛平原