1911-1916 Australian drought
Encyclopedia
The 1911–1916 Australian drought consisted of a series of drought
s that affected various regions of Australia
between the years of 1911 and 1916. Most of the dry spells during this period can be related to three El Niño events in 1911, 1913 and 1914, though rainfall deficiencies actually began in northern Australia before the first of these El Niños set in and did not ease in coastal districts of New South Wales until well after the last El Niño had firmly dissipated and trends toward very heavy rainfall developed in other areas of the continent.
The years before the drought had generally been had satisfactory rainfall and impressive crop yields throughout most of the continent except Gippsland
, coastal districts of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland where the rainfall deficiencies of the Federation Drought
had never disappeared at any point during the decade of the 1900s.
event was producing heavy rain over eastern Australia. January was the wettest on record in Sydney, and February was a phenomenally wet month in Victoria and southwestern New South Wales, with places like Pooncarie on the lower Darling River
recording 190 millimetres (7.5 in) for the month. Averaged over Victoria, February 1911 stands as the third-wettest month since 1885 after October 1975 and February 1973. Heavy monsoonal rain drenched Queensland throughout the summer. These months, however, were virtually rainless in the southwestern quarter of the continent and quite dry in the Kimberley and Top End.
Early March saw exceptionally heavy rains in southern Victoria and eastern Tasmania: Melbourne's rainfall of 191 millimetres (7.5 in) remains a March record. However, in the Top End and Kimberley, drought was already established as Darwin had its driest March in 138 years of record with only 21 millimetre (0.826771653543307 in) as against an average of 290 millimetres (11.4 in). April saw some good late wet season rains in the north due to a severe tropical cyclone
drenching Port Douglas
with a daily fall of 801 millimetres (31.5 in) and promising rains in southwestern Australia.
However, despite the "big wet" continuing in southern Victoria through May and June, southwestern Australia and to lesser extent the settled parts of South Australia and southeast Queensland began to have major rainfall deficiencies in those months. By August dry conditions were, as is usual for El Niño years, general except in coastal districts of New South Wales and the southeast of Western Australia. Southwestern Australia was particularly hard-hit: wheat crops failed completely in many places and led to a revolution in water supply and farming techniques to cope with rainfalls lower than previously known. In the humid forest belt, 1911 was the driest year of the twentieth century at Margaret River and Cape Leeuwin and even the Warren River, the most nearly perennial river in all of WA, ceased to flow during the ensuing summer.
Apart from one big September fall in Victoria dry and often hot conditions did not ease until one of the heaviest downpours ever known in Western Queensland late in November was followed by heavy general falls in December except in Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. November was the driest on record in many parts of western Victoria and eastern Queensland.
recording 2600 millimetres (102.4 in) for those two months.
However, elsewhere exceptionally dry conditions continued until a series of low pressure systems in June and July provided record-breaking rainfalls for that time of year in inland Queensland and New South Wales. Indeed, the winter averaged over those two states was nearly as wet as those of 1950
and 1998. The wheat areas of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria missed the heavy June falls completely but were very wet in July and the Western District of Victoria was relieved of anxiety by exceptionally heavy rainfall in the first eighteen days of September. Despite a dry October outside of southeastern Queensland rainfall for the rest of the year was generally satisfactory throughout southern Australia, though the wet season did not start well in the north.
to Eucla and east from one between Melbourne and Bundaberg, but elsewhere some exceptionally heavy thunderstorm
rains meant the month was a wet one. Adelaide received a particularly intense fall of 56.9 millimetres (2.2 in) on the 17th, with the worst flash flooding in the city's history. Apart from the North Coast of New South Wales, March was particularly wet, so much so that major flooding occurred in most rivers between Melbourne and Sydney. In Melbourne, the total of 23 rainy days is a record for any month between November and April and the low sunshine hours of only four per day also unparalleled.
The period around the 12th of April saw an astonishingly heavy if localised rainfall in the Albany district with totals of up to 175 millimetres (6.9 in) in a day near the Stirling Range
and 114 millimetres (4.5 in) near Katanning. April was also very wet in the southern coastal districts of New South Wales, but May and June saw an unseasonal continuation of easterly winds. Thus, Tasmania, southwestern WA and the settled areas of South Australia were very dry, whilst most of New South Wales, Queensland and East Gippsland were wet. Apart from scattered coastal areas and the extreme southwest, July was exceptionally dry: Ouyen
did not receive any rain in June or July and Adelaide's rainfall for the period of only 32 millimetres (1.3 in) was less than in the disastrous year of 1982. Frost
s were exceptionally severe and led to fears of crop losses.
The following three months saw an abrupt reversal, with dry conditions in Queensland and most of New South Wales contrasting with good rains in the Mallee
, South Australia and southwestern WA. August was particularly noteworthy as the most completely rainless month known in Queensland and New South Wales. The rain turned an unpromising wheat season into one of the best on record despite a violent cold outbreak in the east early in November when Melbourne recorded its lowest-ever maximum for that month on Melbourne Cup Day of just 11.4 °C (52.5 °F). December saw very wet conditions in Queensland, with record flows in some Cape York Peninsula
streams; but, apart from one rain event mid-month with another record daily total in Adelaide, dry weather prevailed elsewhere.
received no rain and Hobart
only 3 millimetre (0.118110236220472 in). Torrential rains around Eden
and Bega
in March and wet conditions in southeastern Australia (especially Tasmania) in April were followed by a second heavy fall in a belt from Broome to the Darling Downs in May. The area around Uluru
saw some of the heaviest rainfalls known until the 1970s
that month.
However, in the southern wheat belt May 1914 began a trend of powerful anticyclone
s and dry, easterly winds that was at the time quite unprecedented and not rivaled until 1982
. In southwestern Australia the rainy season was extraordinarily poor from beginning to end, with only one significant fall all through from May to October and severe frosts prevalent throughout. June, August, September and October were all record dry months in Victoria and Tasmania, and even unusually heavy July rainfall in Gippsland could do nothing to alleviate the drought. The result was, that with the northerly areas around the Darling Downs not well developed yet, Australia's wheat crop was almost completely lost after an exceptionally hot October in which temperatures reached over 36 °C (96.8 °F) even in Hobart. Wheat yields in Victoria were only around 0.10 tonne per hectare and in WA even lower.
In coastal districts of New South Wales, however, the extraordinarily powerful anticyclones that desiccated the interior produced powerful onshore winds and extremely heavy rain: in Port Macquarie, the spring was the wettest on record. November and December were notably hot and humid, with rainfall near or above normal except in Tasmania and coastal Queensland during November. The southeast of Western Australia was particularly wet during these months, but in the desiccated agricultural regions the rain was much too late to save crops or pastures.
was even remotely above average across the whole continent.
In May, however, a trend of wet weather established itself across western Victoria, South Australia and southern Western Australia and continued right through to September. This wetness was backed up by the mildest winter across the southeast until global warming
began in 1980. Crops that barely grew in 1914 grew with extraordinary vigour, and flooding even occurred in the Wimmera, around Adelaide and more severely in the Blackwood River
of Western Australia. Although September saw unseasonable rain as far north as Mount Isa, the drought did not ease in Queensland, coastal New South Wales or Gippsland. Strong westerly winds and tinder-dry forests in August led to major bushfires breaking out in the North Coast of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. Although occasional rain put many fires out in August and September, the dryness in these regions intensified greatly still in October and November due to extremely powerful westerly weather that saw New South Wales record its driest month of the twentieth century (statewide average rainfall 3.2 millimetre (0.125984251968504 in)). Despite patchy rain in December, 1915 was still the driest calendar year on record in most of the North Coast of New South Wales and the Atherton Tableland
of Queensland. Notable low falls include:
The year was, however, very wet in almost all of Western Australia, and also in western Tasmania and an area around Darwin, where December saw an extremely active monsoon with flooding.
developed and produced starting in June exceptionally heavy rain across almost all inland areas of the continent. Adelaide set a record monthly rainfall of 218 millimetres (8.6 in) in June and there was major flooding of the whole city, whilst in July record rainfalls occurred throughout southwestern Queensland.
Still, it was not until nearly continent-wide heavy rains and flooding from late September to mid-December that the drought disappeared fully from the eastern coastal areas, especially Gippsland.
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
s that affected various regions of Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
between the years of 1911 and 1916. Most of the dry spells during this period can be related to three El Niño events in 1911, 1913 and 1914, though rainfall deficiencies actually began in northern Australia before the first of these El Niños set in and did not ease in coastal districts of New South Wales until well after the last El Niño had firmly dissipated and trends toward very heavy rainfall developed in other areas of the continent.
The years before the drought had generally been had satisfactory rainfall and impressive crop yields throughout most of the continent except Gippsland
Gippsland
Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border, lying between the Great Dividing Range to the north and Bass Strait to the south...
, coastal districts of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland where the rainfall deficiencies of the Federation Drought
Federation Drought
In Australia, the Federation Drought is the name given to a prolonged period of drought that occurred around the time of Federation in 1901.Though often thought of as a long drought, until the record dry year of 1902 the period was actually one of a number of very dry spells intercepted with wetter...
had never disappeared at any point during the decade of the 1900s.
1911
At the beginning of the year, a strong La NiñaLa Niña
La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern. During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C...
event was producing heavy rain over eastern Australia. January was the wettest on record in Sydney, and February was a phenomenally wet month in Victoria and southwestern New South Wales, with places like Pooncarie on the lower Darling River
Darling River
The Darling River is the third longest river in Australia, measuring from its source in northern New South Wales to its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth, New South Wales. Including its longest contiguous tributaries it is long, making it the longest river system in Australia.The...
recording 190 millimetres (7.5 in) for the month. Averaged over Victoria, February 1911 stands as the third-wettest month since 1885 after October 1975 and February 1973. Heavy monsoonal rain drenched Queensland throughout the summer. These months, however, were virtually rainless in the southwestern quarter of the continent and quite dry in the Kimberley and Top End.
Early March saw exceptionally heavy rains in southern Victoria and eastern Tasmania: Melbourne's rainfall of 191 millimetres (7.5 in) remains a March record. However, in the Top End and Kimberley, drought was already established as Darwin had its driest March in 138 years of record with only 21 millimetre (0.826771653543307 in) as against an average of 290 millimetres (11.4 in). April saw some good late wet season rains in the north due to a severe tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclone
A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a large low-pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and heavy rain. Tropical cyclones strengthen when water evaporated from the ocean is released as the saturated air rises, resulting in condensation of water vapor...
drenching Port Douglas
Port Douglas, Queensland
Port Douglas is a town in Far North Queensland, Australia, approximately north of Cairns. Its permanent population was 948 residents in 2006. The town's population can often double, however, with the influx of tourists during the peak tourism season May–September. The town is named in honour of...
with a daily fall of 801 millimetres (31.5 in) and promising rains in southwestern Australia.
However, despite the "big wet" continuing in southern Victoria through May and June, southwestern Australia and to lesser extent the settled parts of South Australia and southeast Queensland began to have major rainfall deficiencies in those months. By August dry conditions were, as is usual for El Niño years, general except in coastal districts of New South Wales and the southeast of Western Australia. Southwestern Australia was particularly hard-hit: wheat crops failed completely in many places and led to a revolution in water supply and farming techniques to cope with rainfalls lower than previously known. In the humid forest belt, 1911 was the driest year of the twentieth century at Margaret River and Cape Leeuwin and even the Warren River, the most nearly perennial river in all of WA, ceased to flow during the ensuing summer.
Apart from one big September fall in Victoria dry and often hot conditions did not ease until one of the heaviest downpours ever known in Western Queensland late in November was followed by heavy general falls in December except in Queensland and northeastern New South Wales. November was the driest on record in many parts of western Victoria and eastern Queensland.
1912
The hopes the good December rains gave soon disappeared as January was exceptionally dry almost throughout the continent except for a few normally-dry areas between Perth and Geraldton. Major tropical cyclones provided respite to the Kimberley in February and the Eucla in March, whilst a small coastal belt of the Wet Tropics had exceptionally heavy rainfall in April and May, with InnisfailInnisfail, Queensland
Innisfail is a town located in the far north of the state of Queensland, Australia. It is the major township of the Cassowary Coast and is well renowned for its sugar and banana industries, as well as for being one of Australia's wettest towns...
recording 2600 millimetres (102.4 in) for those two months.
However, elsewhere exceptionally dry conditions continued until a series of low pressure systems in June and July provided record-breaking rainfalls for that time of year in inland Queensland and New South Wales. Indeed, the winter averaged over those two states was nearly as wet as those of 1950
1950 Australian rainfall records
The 1950 rainfall records for the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland reported probably the most remarkable record high rainfall totals ever recorded anywhere in the continent. Averaged over both of these states, 1950 is clearly the wettest year since adequate records became...
and 1998. The wheat areas of Western Australia, South Australia and Victoria missed the heavy June falls completely but were very wet in July and the Western District of Victoria was relieved of anxiety by exceptionally heavy rainfall in the first eighteen days of September. Despite a dry October outside of southeastern Queensland rainfall for the rest of the year was generally satisfactory throughout southern Australia, though the wet season did not start well in the north.
1913
This year opened with some heavy monsoonal rains over the more coastal areas of Queensland and the Northern Territory in January; however, the month was very dry in the southeast apart from southern Tasmania. February was dry west of a line from DerbyDerby, Western Australia
Derby is a town in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. At the 2006 census, Derby had a population of 3,093. Along with Broome and Kununurra, it is one of only three towns in the Kimberley to have a population over 2,000...
to Eucla and east from one between Melbourne and Bundaberg, but elsewhere some exceptionally heavy thunderstorm
Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
rains meant the month was a wet one. Adelaide received a particularly intense fall of 56.9 millimetres (2.2 in) on the 17th, with the worst flash flooding in the city's history. Apart from the North Coast of New South Wales, March was particularly wet, so much so that major flooding occurred in most rivers between Melbourne and Sydney. In Melbourne, the total of 23 rainy days is a record for any month between November and April and the low sunshine hours of only four per day also unparalleled.
The period around the 12th of April saw an astonishingly heavy if localised rainfall in the Albany district with totals of up to 175 millimetres (6.9 in) in a day near the Stirling Range
Stirling Range
The Stirling Range or Koikyennuruff is a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 km south-east of Perth. It is located at approximately and is over 60 km wide from west to east, stretching from the highway between Mount Barker and Cranbrook...
and 114 millimetres (4.5 in) near Katanning. April was also very wet in the southern coastal districts of New South Wales, but May and June saw an unseasonal continuation of easterly winds. Thus, Tasmania, southwestern WA and the settled areas of South Australia were very dry, whilst most of New South Wales, Queensland and East Gippsland were wet. Apart from scattered coastal areas and the extreme southwest, July was exceptionally dry: Ouyen
Ouyen, Victoria
Ouyen is a town in Victoria, Australia, located in the Rural City of Mildura at the junction of the Calder Highway and Mallee Highway, south of Mildura and north-west of Melbourne. At the 2006 census the town had a population of 1,061.-History:...
did not receive any rain in June or July and Adelaide's rainfall for the period of only 32 millimetres (1.3 in) was less than in the disastrous year of 1982. Frost
Frost
Frost is the solid deposition of water vapor from saturated air. It is formed when solid surfaces are cooled to below the dew point of the adjacent air as well as below the freezing point of water. Frost crystals' size differ depending on time and water vapour available. Frost is also usually...
s were exceptionally severe and led to fears of crop losses.
The following three months saw an abrupt reversal, with dry conditions in Queensland and most of New South Wales contrasting with good rains in the Mallee
The Mallee
The Mallee is the most northwesterly district in the state of Victoria, and also encompasses the agricultural district of South Australia. Definitions vary, however all are based on the Victorian distribution of mallee eucalypts...
, South Australia and southwestern WA. August was particularly noteworthy as the most completely rainless month known in Queensland and New South Wales. The rain turned an unpromising wheat season into one of the best on record despite a violent cold outbreak in the east early in November when Melbourne recorded its lowest-ever maximum for that month on Melbourne Cup Day of just 11.4 °C (52.5 °F). December saw very wet conditions in Queensland, with record flows in some Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula
Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...
streams; but, apart from one rain event mid-month with another record daily total in Adelaide, dry weather prevailed elsewhere.
1914
January was very wet in the Top End, Kimberley and Central Australia, but distinctly dry in the south of the continent, leading onto a major heatwave with exceptionally dry conditions in the far southeast during February, when OrbostOrbost, Victoria
Orbost is a town in the Shire of East Gippsland, Victoria, Australia, located east of Melbourne and south of Canberra where the Princes Highway crosses the Snowy River. It is about from the town of Marlo on the coast of Bass Strait. At the 2006 census, Orbost had a population of 2452...
received no rain and Hobart
Hobart
Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...
only 3 millimetre (0.118110236220472 in). Torrential rains around Eden
Eden, New South Wales
Eden is a coastal town in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. The town, south of the state capital Sydney near the border with Victoria, is located between Nullica Bay to the south and Calle Calle Bay, the northern reach of Twofold Bay, and built on undulating land adjacent to a...
and Bega
Bega, New South Wales
Bega is a town in the south-east of New South Wales, Australia in the Bega Valley Shire. It is the economic centre for the Bega Valley.-Place name:One claim is that place name Bega is derived from the local Aboriginal word meaning "big camping ground"....
in March and wet conditions in southeastern Australia (especially Tasmania) in April were followed by a second heavy fall in a belt from Broome to the Darling Downs in May. The area around Uluru
Uluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
saw some of the heaviest rainfalls known until the 1970s
Climate change in Australia
Climate change has become a major issue in Australia due to drastic climate events since the turn of the 21st century that have focused government and public attention. Rainfall in Australia has increased slightly over the past century, although there is little or no trend in rainfall in northeast...
that month.
However, in the southern wheat belt May 1914 began a trend of powerful anticyclone
Anticyclone
An anticyclone is a weather phenomenon defined by the United States' National Weather Service's glossary as "[a] large-scale circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere"...
s and dry, easterly winds that was at the time quite unprecedented and not rivaled until 1982
1979-1983 Eastern Australian drought
Between 1979 and 1983 almost all of eastern Australia was affected by a major drought.Although in some places such as the South Coast the drought was almost continuous, in most of the affected region the major years of drought were 1980 and 1982.-Background:...
. In southwestern Australia the rainy season was extraordinarily poor from beginning to end, with only one significant fall all through from May to October and severe frosts prevalent throughout. June, August, September and October were all record dry months in Victoria and Tasmania, and even unusually heavy July rainfall in Gippsland could do nothing to alleviate the drought. The result was, that with the northerly areas around the Darling Downs not well developed yet, Australia's wheat crop was almost completely lost after an exceptionally hot October in which temperatures reached over 36 °C (96.8 °F) even in Hobart. Wheat yields in Victoria were only around 0.10 tonne per hectare and in WA even lower.
In coastal districts of New South Wales, however, the extraordinarily powerful anticyclones that desiccated the interior produced powerful onshore winds and extremely heavy rain: in Port Macquarie, the spring was the wettest on record. November and December were notably hot and humid, with rainfall near or above normal except in Tasmania and coastal Queensland during November. The southeast of Western Australia was particularly wet during these months, but in the desiccated agricultural regions the rain was much too late to save crops or pastures.
1915
The heavy rainfall of November and December in Western Australia continued throughout the first two months of 1915, culminating in quite unseasonable downpours over the southwest at the end of February and beginning of March. During this period Perth had a spell of ten successive rainy days - more than it normally has in February and March combined. El Niño, however, remained powerful and eastern Australia was almost uniformly dry throughout the first three months of 1915 except for East Gippsland in January and Tasmania in March. Brisbane's March 1915 rainfall of 2.8 millimetre (0.110236220472441 in) is its lowest ever and only 2 percent of its long-term March mean, whilst even normally-soaked Cairns received only 120 millimetres (4.7 in). April was equally dry in Queensland and the Northern Territory and only Tasmania and an area near OnslowOnslow, Western Australia
Onslow is a coastal town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, north of Perth. It currently has a population of around 573 people and is in the Shire of Ashburton Local Government Area....
was even remotely above average across the whole continent.
In May, however, a trend of wet weather established itself across western Victoria, South Australia and southern Western Australia and continued right through to September. This wetness was backed up by the mildest winter across the southeast until global warming
Global warming
Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades...
began in 1980. Crops that barely grew in 1914 grew with extraordinary vigour, and flooding even occurred in the Wimmera, around Adelaide and more severely in the Blackwood River
Blackwood River
The Blackwood River is a major river and catchment in the South West of Western Australia.The river begins at the junction of Arthur River and Balgarup River near Quelarup and travels in a south westerly direction through the town of Bridgetown then through Nannup until it discharges into the...
of Western Australia. Although September saw unseasonable rain as far north as Mount Isa, the drought did not ease in Queensland, coastal New South Wales or Gippsland. Strong westerly winds and tinder-dry forests in August led to major bushfires breaking out in the North Coast of New South Wales and southeastern Queensland. Although occasional rain put many fires out in August and September, the dryness in these regions intensified greatly still in October and November due to extremely powerful westerly weather that saw New South Wales record its driest month of the twentieth century (statewide average rainfall 3.2 millimetre (0.125984251968504 in)). Despite patchy rain in December, 1915 was still the driest calendar year on record in most of the North Coast of New South Wales and the Atherton Tableland
Atherton Tableland
The Atherton Tableland is a fertile plateau which is part of the Great Dividing Range in Queensland, Australia. It is located west to south-south-west inland from Cairns, well into the tropics, but its elevated position provides a climate suitable for dairy farming. It has an area of around...
of Queensland. Notable low falls include:
- HerbertonHerberton, QueenslandHerberton is a town on the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland, Australia. At the 2006 census, Herberton had a population of 974.-History:...
with 377.6 millimetres (14.9 in) against a medianMedianIn probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...
of 1143 millimetres (45 in) - LismoreLismore, New South WalesLismore is a subtropical town in northeastern New South Wales, Australia. Lismore is the main population centre in the City of Lismore local government area. Lismore is a regional centre in the Northern Rivers region of the State.-History:...
with 544 millimetres (21.4 in) against a median of 1289 millimetres (50.7 in) - Port MacquariePort Macquarie, New South WalesPort Macquarie is a city on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, located about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The city is located on the coast, at the mouth of the Hastings River, and has an estimated population of 44,313....
with 730 millimetres (28.7 in) against a median of 1410 millimetres (55.5 in) - InverellInverell, New South WalesInverell is a town in northern New South Wales, Australia, situated on the Macintyre River. It is also the centre of Inverell Shire. Inverell is located on the Gwydir Highway on the western slopes of the Northern Tablelands. It has a temperate climate...
with 423 millimetres (16.7 in) against a median of 749 millimetres (29.5 in)
The year was, however, very wet in almost all of Western Australia, and also in western Tasmania and an area around Darwin, where December saw an extremely active monsoon with flooding.
1916
This year opened with heavy rain in Tasmania, southern Victoria and western Queensland, but the drought areas on the east coast did not gain relief until April. May, however was very dry except in a few coastal parts of New South Wales. This time, however, a powerful La NiñaLa Niña
La Niña is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that is the counterpart of El Niño as part of the broader El Niño-Southern Oscillation climate pattern. During a period of La Niña, the sea surface temperature across the equatorial Eastern Central Pacific Ocean will be lower than normal by 3–5 °C...
developed and produced starting in June exceptionally heavy rain across almost all inland areas of the continent. Adelaide set a record monthly rainfall of 218 millimetres (8.6 in) in June and there was major flooding of the whole city, whilst in July record rainfalls occurred throughout southwestern Queensland.
Still, it was not until nearly continent-wide heavy rains and flooding from late September to mid-December that the drought disappeared fully from the eastern coastal areas, especially Gippsland.