Drought in Australia
Drought in Australia is defined by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology as rainfall over spell greater than three-months being in the lowest decile of what has been recorded for that place in the past. This definition takes into account that drought is a relative term and rainfall deficiencies need to be compared to typical rainfall patterns including seasonal variations. Specifically, drought in Australia is defined in relation to a rainfall deficiency of pastoral leases and is determined by decile analysis applied to a certain area. Note that this definition uses rainfall only because long-term records are widely available across most of Australia. However, it does not take into account other variables that might be important for establishing surface water balance, such as evaporation and condensation.
Historical climatic records are now sufficiently reliable to profile climate variability taking into account expectations for regions. Bureau of Meteorology records since the 1860s have shown that a "severe" drought has occurred in Australia, on average, once every 18 years. State Governments are responsible for declaring a region drought affected and the declaration will take into account factors other than rainfall.
Australia has experienced a marked decrease in precipitation levels since 1994. Deficiencies in northern Australia increased in 2013–14, leading to an extended drought period in certain parts of Queensland. Between 2017 and 2019, severe drought developed once more across much of eastern and inland Australia including Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, also extending into parts of South and Western Australia.
Droughts in the 19th century
- 1803 Drought in New South Wales that produced several crop failures.
- 1809 Beginning of an unusually severe drought in NSW that continued until 1811.
- 1813–1815 Severe drought in NSW that prompted searches for new pastures.
- 1826–1829 Severe drought in NSW that caused Lake George to dry up and the Darling River to cease flowing.
- 1829 Major drought in Western Australia with very little water available.
- 1835 and 1838 Sydney and NSW receive 25% less rain than usual. Severe drought in Northam and York areas of Western Australia.
- 1838–39 Droughts in South Australia and Western Australia
- 1839 Severe drought in the west and north of Spencer Gulf, South Australia.
- 1846 Severe drought converted the interior and far north of South Australia into an arid desert.
- 1849 Sydney received about 27 inches less rain than normal.
- 1850 Severe drought, with big losses of livestock across inland New South Wales and around the western rivers region.
- 1864–1866. The little data available indicates that this drought period was rather severe in Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. This drought also helped fires in the Australia outback at the time.
- 1877 All states affected by severe drought, with disastrous losses in Queensland. In Western Australia many native trees died, swamps dried up and crops failed.
- 1880 to 1886 Drought in Victoria ; New South Wales ; Queensland ; and South Australia.
- 1888 Extremely dry in Victoria ; Tasmania ; New South Wales had the driest year since records began; Queensland had a very severe drought, with much native scrub dying and native animals perishing; South Australia had one of its most severe droughts; and Western Australia lost many sheep.
- 1897 Drought in much of Queensland, compared to 1883–84 droughts.
Drought in the 20th century
Federation drought
At the time of Federation, Australia suffered a major drought. There had been a number of years of below average rainfall across most of Australia before the drought. During the drought, the wheat crop was "all but lost", and the Darling River was dry at Bourke, New South Wales, for over a year, from April 1902 to May 1903. There was concern about Sydney's water supply. By 1902, Australia's sheep population dropped from its 1891 level of 106 million to fewer than 54 million. Cattle numbers fell by more than 40 per cent. Sheep numbers did not return to 100 million until 1925.In the 1911–1915 period, Australia suffered a major drought, which failed the 1914 wheat crop. From 1918 to 1920, a severe drought was experienced by Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory, Western Australia, Victoria, and Tasmania.
Other 20th century droughts
World War II drought: 1937 to 1945
During World War II frequent dry spells from 1937 to 1945 extended over New South Wales, Victoria, much of Queensland and parts of Western Australia, with more breaks than the Federation and Millennium droughts, but more periods of intense dryness. Parts of New South Wales, notably the central west, had record-low rainfall and in 1938 severe dry conditions intensified there and in Victoria, eastern South Australia and in southwest Australian grain-growing areas. An extremely dry six-month spell in Victorian forests contributed to the disastrous Black Friday bushfires of January 1939, before heavy rain came in late February 1939 over Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales.The rains were only a brief respite, and 1940 was one of the driest years of the century over most of southern Australia, emptying the Nepean Dam in New South Wales and imposing water restrictions in Brisbane. Perth had its driest year of the 20th century. Heavy rain in the southeastern States in November 1940 and January 1941 slightly eased the situation and 1942 was a year of good general rain, but an even worse 1944 resulted when dearth of winter–spring rains led to failure of the wheat crop and required populations in northern Victoria to cart water. Into 1945, large rivers virtually dried up, with most of the Hunter River ceasing flow and the Hawkesbury drying up at North Richmond. There was no flow in the Murray above Echuca. Adelaide faced water shortages while main Victorian water storages were empty in April 1945 and water restrictions were imposed as far north as Townsville. Dust storms blanketed South Australia, northern Victoria and southern New South Wales through the summer of 1944–45.
Artist Russell Drysdale undertook a 3-week 5000km tour, at the height of WW2, of wind-eroded drought-stricken areas on commission from The Sydney Morning Herald. The articles written by Keith Newman, which were variously headed "The country in which there are no Bushfires. There is nothing to burn"; "Worst Drought in Australia's History"; and "An Artist's Journey Into Australia's 'Lost World, were generously illustrated with stark line drawings by Drysdale and appeared on subsequent days from 16 to 19 December 1944.
The drought broke in the southern States in winter 1945, with a good wheat harvest that year, but in some regions of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales 1946, it was the worst year of all, and only in 1947 did significant general rains end the long drought.
Post World War II
In 1952, large regions across the North were affected by a failed wet season declared to be the "driest season for 50 years". Its effect on agriculture was profound, with millions of cattle dying, many because the stock routes south were too dry to sustain their journey. Artist Sidney Nolan, on commission from the Brisbane Courier-Mail, produced a series of photographs of their dried carcasses, but the results were judged by editors to be too confronting and the article carried his drawings from the pictures instead.1965–1968 drought
From 1965–1968, eastern Australia was again greatly affected by drought. Conditions had been dry over the centre of the continent since 1957 but spread elsewhere during the summer of 1964/1965. This drought contributed to the 1967 Tasmanian fires in which 62 people died in one day and 1,400 homes were lost.1980s
The drought in 1982–83 is regarded as the worst of the twentieth century for short-term rainfall deficiencies of up to one year and their over-all impact. There were severe dust storms in north-western Victoria and severe bushfires in south-east Australia in February 1983 with 75 people killed. This El Niño-related drought ended in March, when a monsoon depression became an extratropical low and swept across Australia's interior and on to the south-east in mid- to late March.1990s Queensland drought
An extremely severe drought occurred in the later year of 1991, which intensified in 1994 and 1995 to become the worst on record in Queensland. This drought was influenced by a strong El Niño weather pattern and associated with high temperatures in July and August 1995, the fifth continuous year of drought in parts of Queensland. According to Primary Industries Minister Ed Casey, "the drought affected region stretched in a 200 km to 300 km wide strip from Stanthorpe to Charters Towers". So few wheat and barley crops survived, about half the usual for that year, that grains had to be imported from other states.In June 1994, more than ten towns had lost irrigation systems; and some areas had gone five years without decent rainfall.
A part of the upper Darling River system collapsed during this drought. By October 1994, the Condamine River was exhausted, reverting to a series of ponds. Across the state, in more than 13,000 properties, totaling 40% of Queensland, was drought declared. The flow past Goondiwindi was the lowest since 1940. Cotton farms near Moree and Narrabri had been allocated no water for irrigation, which resulted in a major loss of production. The town of Warwick was particularly affected.