A grim summer is likely for the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin and the people, flora and fauna that rely on it. Having worked for sustainable management of these rivers for decades, I fear the coming months will […]
Read more
Cliche sensitive citizens might be experiencing politician-induced nausea after Water Minister David Littleproud’s branding of new the new Murray Darling Basin Inspector General Mick Keelty as the new “tough cop on the beat”. But the new water compliance […]
Read more
Winter still has a few days to run, but it’s highly likely to be one of Australia’s warmest and driest on record. While final numbers will be crunched once August ends, this winter will probably rank among the […]
Read more
Water Resources Minister David Littleproud has lashed federal MPs backing a 1930s plan to divert floodwaters inland from Australia’s coast, suggesting they are clutching to a “discredited” relic and setting back the water infrastructure cause. Mr Littleproud made […]
Read more
A new study has found that South Australia’s droughts are getting worse, becoming longer and more severe. Professor Simon Beecham, UniSA’s Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research and Innovation, led the study and drew on data from his Goyder Institute […]
Read more
Current Australian drought policy aims to promote preparedness and resilience in favour of costly disaster-relief based strategies. Recent conditions have highlighted a shortfall in this approach, with Federal Government aid contributions exceeding $1 billion near the end of […]
Read more
Inland towns need far more water storage. Flickr/Mertie, CC BY-SA The federal parliament has voted to funnel A$200 million to drought-stricken areas. What exactly this money will be spent on is still under consideration, but the majority will […]
Read more
Debate over the viability of the $13 billion Murray Darling Basin Plan is likely to intensify in coming months as the region’s drought deepens, scientists and stakeholders say. Fears that the plan – backed by the Morrison government […]
Read more
The ongoing drought through the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is now the worst on record according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM). Speaking during a BOM seminar on climate, BOM climatologist David Jones said the drought had now […]
Read more
Data from new satellites reveal the alarming extent of the recent drought in Australia and confirms a significant loss of ice in Antarctica, say ANU scientists. Dr Paul Tregoning, whose team developed software to process the first publicly […]
Read more
Farmers in Mallee Hill and Mount Short in the state’s south have run out of water after months of drought. Two areas of Western Australia have been declared “water deficient” and will have supplies trucked in by the […]
Read more
Humans have contributed to increased global risks of drought for more than a century, scientists say, in findings that also point to “severe” consequences ahead with climate change. The research by US-based scientists and published in Nature journal […]
Read more
It’s not good. Not good at all. The hot dry summer has stripped the soils of moisture, water storages are down in every state and territory, and New South Wales is drowning in dust. So far this drought […]
Read more
Another summer, another drought. Sydney’s water storages are running on empty, and desalinisation plants are being dusted off. Elsewhere, shrunken rivers, lakes and dams are swollen with rotting fish. Governments, irrigators and environmentalists blame each other for the drought, or just blame […]
Read more
New research in Nature Climate Change suggests droughts may not increase as a result of climate change. This finding resulted from researchers investigating an apparent climate model contradiction that saw climate change projections of the 21st Century produce […]
Read more
The deaths of a million of fish in the lower Darling River system over the past few weeks should come as no surprise. Quite apart from specific warnings given to the NSW government by their own specialists in […]
Read more
A New South Wales government agency says it is in uncharted territory regarding management of the state’s water supply because of the drought. Water New South Wales said in previous years it had relied on modelling from past […]
Read more
The droughts of past decades have burnt the term El Nino into the Australian vocabulary, but after the drought of 2018, perhaps the IOD — short for Indian Ocean Dipole — might also become a household name. A […]
Read more
Australia is facing more severe floods and droughts as rainfall patterns diminish over the past three decades, a new report has warned. Co-author Professor Will Steffen from the Climate Council said the report shows an intensification of drought and […]
Read more
Drought is in the news here in New South Wales, Australia. But how are rainfall, drought and groundwater related? First, we need to understand what drought is. Is it a water shortage? Or a lack of rainfall? Or […]
Read more