‘Really, really vulnerable’: Water-sharing plans not taking Millennium Drought into consideration

The state of Climate Processes Research in Australia

A report outlining the current state of climate processes research in Australia was recently put together for the National Climate Science Advisory Committee. What follows is the Executive Summary – […]
Indian Ocean phenomenon spells climate trouble for Australia

New international research has found a worrying change in the Indian Ocean’s surface temperatures that puts southeast Australia on course for increasingly hot and dry conditions. The work led by […]
Rain has eased the dry, but more is needed to break the drought

After the intensely dry conditions of 2019, January and February have brought much-needed rain. Dams in many cities and towns were replenished and some farmers may be able to grow […]
Heavy rains are great news for Sydney’s dams, but they come with a big caveat

Throughout summer, Sydney’s water storage level fell alarmingly. Level 2 water restrictions were imposed and the New South Wales government prepared to double the capacity of its desalination plant. But […]
Why drought-busting rain depends on the tropical oceans

Recent helpful rains dampened fire grounds and gave many farmers a reason to cheer. But much of southeast Australia remains in severe drought. Australia is no stranger to drought, but […]
After a summer of extremes, here’s what to expect this autumn

The past Australian summer was a season of two contrasting halves. So did the midsummer weather change make a dent in the drought, and is it likely to continue through […]
New hydromorphological dynamics dataset for all Australian river reaches

Hydromorphological attributes such as river width, flow regime, water extent and gradient provide fundamental information for understanding river hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological processes in floodplain-river systems, identifying flooding-prone areas, assessing […]

‘Really, really vulnerable’: Water-sharing plans not taking Millennium Drought into consideration

January 30, 2020 Harriet Alexander (The Sydney Morning Herald)

At least four of the state’s 13 water-sharing plans are not taking the Millennium Drought into consideration when calculating how much dam water to quarantine for towns at the expense of irrigators. A further four are planning to […]

Articles

Bushfires spew two-thirds of national carbon emissions in one season

January 30, 2020 Mike Foley (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Australia’s bushfires are believed to have spewed as much as two-thirds of the nation’s annual carbon dioxide emissions in just the past three months, with experts warning forests may take more than 100 years to absorb what’s been […]

Articles

Climate change and extreme events – quantifying the changing odds

January 30, 2020 Michael Grose (CSIRO) and Pandora Hope (Bureau of Meteorology)

The field of climate change event attribution research has emerged recently and can provide new insights into Australian climate extremes. When a climate extreme event with notable impacts comes along, a natural question arises – “did anthropogenic climate […]

Articles

Bushfires threaten drinking water safety. The consequences could last for decades

January 30, 2020 Stuart Khan (University of New South Wales)

Bushfires pose serious short- and long-term impacts to public drinking water quality. They can damage water supply infrastructure and water catchments, impeding the treatment processes that normally make our water safe to drink. Several areas in New South […]

Articles

Most of Tasmania now faces water restrictions

January 30, 2020 SBS News Australia

Water restrictions in Tasmania have been extended to include most of the state for the first time, after three years of dry conditions and low rainfall. TasWater says the restrictions will take effect from Monday in all serviced […]

Articles

The bushfires are horrendous, but expect cyclones, floods and heatwaves too

January 30, 2020 Neville Nicholls (Monash University)

Public attention on the disastrous bushfire crisis in Australia will rightly continue for weeks to come. But as we direct resources to coping and recovery, we should not forget other weather and climate challenges looming this summer. Bushfires […]

Articles

More than six months’ worth of Tamworth’s drinking water disappears without a trace

January 30, 2020 Jamieson Murphy (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Aerial view of the Peel River running into the Chaffey Dam, NSW. 1996.

More than 6000 megalitres released from Chaffey Dam is unaccounted for, according to Water NSW. The Peel Valley’s recent water balance report breaks down where the water from the dam went during the 2018/19 financial year. The 6090 […]

Articles

Treating water markets like stock markets: Key water market reform lessons in the Murray-Darling Basin

January 30, 2020 Constantin Seidl (University of Adelaide)

blue-and-yellow-graph-on-stock-market-monitor-159888

With large parts of south-eastern Australia in the grips of the worst drought in 120 years, irrigation communities in the Murray-Darling Basin are suffering under low water availability and high water prices. Alongside severe cuts in commodity prices, […]

Publication

Don’t blame the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. It’s climate and economic change driving farmers out

January 30, 2020 Sarah Ann Wheeler (University of Adelaide)

For the thousand or so farmers in Canberra in the past week venting their anger at the federal government, it’s the Murray-Darling Basin Plan to blame for destroying their livelihoods and forcing them off the land. We can’t […]

Publication

GloFAS-ERA5 reanalysis: River discharge ‘maps without gaps’ from 1979-present

January 30, 2020 Shaun Harrigan (ECMWF)

In an ideal world we would have river discharge measurements for every river spanning many decades and updated in real time. We all know this is very far from reality with severe gaps in the global observing network […]

Data sets

Multi-model drought predictions using temporally aggregated climate indicators

January 30, 2020 Md Mamunur Rashid, Ashish Sharma and Fiona Johnson (UNSW)

Extreme hydrological anomalies such as drought have significant impacts on infrastructure and socio-environmental systems. Skillful prediction of droughts is essential for reducing those impacts. For example, water sharing and allocation amongst stakeholders can be optimized with reliable information […]

Publication

‘It was an eye-opener’: councils surprised by drought

November 28, 2019 Harriet Alexander (The Sydney Morning Herald)

Rural NSW mayors concede they did not move quickly enough to secure their towns’ water supplies ahead of the worst drought in living memory. The state government has threatened to intervene directly in some shires to ensure water […]

Articles

Murray-Darling water and farmland is being bought up big by corporate business goFARM

November 28, 2019 Warwick Long (ABC)

The corporate business buying farmland and water across the southern Murray-Darling plans to farm the land and says it is not a water speculator. In a year, goFARM Australia has bought over a dozen properties and their water […]

Articles

Drought to become more frequent and severe due to climate change – government report

November 28, 2019 Amy Remeikis (The Guardian)

Report advises Australia to maintain drought preparations, even in times of normal rainfall Drought is not a natural disaster and must be accepted as an enduring feature of the Australian landscape which climate change is only going to […]

Articles

The science of drought is complex but the message on climate change is clear

November 28, 2019 Ben Henley and Andrew King (University of Melbourne), Anna Ukkola (ANU), Murray Peel, QJ Wang and Rory Nathan (University of Melbourne)

The issue of whether Australia’s current drought is caused by climate change has been seized on by some media commentators, with debate raging over a remark from eminent scientist Andy Pitman that “there is no link between climate […]

Articles

Murray-Darling Basin Authority chief apologises for public release of dam satellite images

November 28, 2019 Kath Sullivan (ABC)

The head of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has apologised for mistakenly publishing a report that identified farms via satellite imagery. Last week, the MDBA released a statement to say it had detected 32 private dams in the […]

Articles

We can’t drought-proof Australia, and trying is a fool’s errand

November 28, 2019 Emma Kathryn White (University of Melbourne)

There is a phrase in the novel East of Eden that springs to mind every time politicians speak of “drought-proofing” Australia: And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and […]

Articles

Investigating strategies to improve hydrologic model performance in a changing climate

November 28, 2019 Clare Stephens, Lucy Marshall and Fiona Johnson (UNSW Water Research Centre)

Aerial of rainforest canopy. Bellenden Ker, North Queensland. November 1989. (Source: Robert Kerton)

Many studies have shown that conceptual hydrologic models become less reliable as the conditions they aim to simulate deviate further from the calibration conditions. Some attempts to improve model transferability under change have been published, considering options such […]

Publication

Global heating supercharging Indian Ocean climate system

November 28, 2019 Peter Beaumont and Graham Readfearn (The Guardian)

Indian Ocean dipole events, linked to bushfires and floods, are becoming stronger and more frequent, scientists say Global heating is “supercharging” an increasingly dangerous climate mechanism in the Indian Ocean that has played a role in disasters this […]

Articles

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