Last Tuesday ABC television featured Artist Ben Quilty, with his contentious painting style harnessing palette knives and kitchen utensils, telling the uncomfortable secrets of the Australian bush.

Then a total fire ban was issued in Tasmania on Thursday with the threat of strong winds, low humidity, and high temperatures placing us all on alert.

Further, mainland Australia braced for more catastrophic fire conditions with 100 schools in South Australia closing their doors as a precaution. To the east, dust storms and smoke haze were blinding and choking major cities and regional areas.

"On days of Total Fire Ban, all outdoor fires are banned except electric stoves and barbecues, and gas stoves and barbecues provided they are cleared of flammable material for at least one metre. All barbecues, portable stoves, pizza ovens etc that use wood, charcoal, heat beads or other solid or liquid fuel are banned," The Tasmania Fire Service website informs us.

And while Australia burns, on the other side of the world the city of Venice floods.

Venice, Northern Italy, consists of more than 100 islands in the Adriatic Sea.

The canal system supports the economy with walking and all manner of watercraft the major forms of transport.

The influence of the Renaissance is obvious with the city's structures showcasing the period. Canaletto, Monet, Manet, Renoir, and Turner found Venice a muse. Sadly, the highest tide in 50 years threatens their precious architecture.

When Australia burns and experiences severe drought we pray for significant downpours. Yet in Tasmania, it won't be long before we are demanding that the inevitable rains cease their deluge. Tasmania relies upon the weather for much of our local production. From Hydroelectricity to fodder crops and food, we often feel as comfortable in our Blundstones or wellies as we do in our thongs. We recognise the importance of water, investing millions in irrigation schemes across the state's landscape that has made us more competitive through the expansion of highly valued crops.

Hydro-generated power is the most significant industrialisation period of recent Australian history. The Snowy Mountains Scheme in New South Wales was considered the most ambitious, celebrating 75 years in 2019. The Hydro-Electric Commission (HEC) now Hydro Tasmania started work in 1914 building the Waddamana Power Station. Scotch Oakburn College Grade 6 pupil Tahlia Muller articulately explained the history of hydropower in Launceston through her highly commended essay in the Launceston Historical Society Primary History Prize published in The Examiner newspaper: "The Launceston City Corporation held a poll for citizens to vote whether the Duck Reach Power Station should be developed on the banks of the South Esk River, during which time the Launceston Gas Company campaigned strongly to prevent the project from going ahead because they knew electricity would have an effect to gas lighting they provided to the city."

Since that time, we have been afforded the luxury of complacency when turning on the lights. The Basslink Interconnector, a carbon price, selling energy to the national grid during peak times, and buying back power made from coal when our dams are running low have all challenged our thinking. But the lights still turn on.

The late Max Angus AM, one of Tasmania's foremost watercolourists, depicted the controversy of the flooding of Lake Pedder in 1972 by painting the subject in its natural state. He was ironically commissioned by the HEC during the 1950s to depict the History of the Hydro, which he achieved via a mural.

Angus would write a tribute to his friend, Olegas Truchanas who drowned in the Gordon River. Peter Dombrovskis, who found Truchanas, took stunning photographs of the Franklin River. And author Richard Flanagan composed the story of a river guide, Aljaz Corsini drowning beneath a Franklin River waterfall in his debut novel.

"Of droughts and flooding rains." Dorothea MacKellar famously offered in My Country first published in 1908.

Artists have continually asked questions through their works and I am glad our children are doing the same.