The Bureau of Meteorology has released a formal record of the record-breaking floods across eastern Australia during last spring.

The bureau’s special climate statement includes details on the rainfall and catchment conditions at the time, and comparisons with previous rainfall records and flood events.

Many sites across south-eastern Australia had their highest total spring rainfall on record, including more than 200 sites with at least 100 years of observations.

Persistent heavy rain led to extensive riverine flooding in the Murray–Darling Basin in NSW and Victoria, and floodwaters moved into SA. 

Significant flooding also affected parts of southern Victoria, southern Queensland and northern Tasmania.

Some gauges exceeded their historical flood peaks during spring 2022, including on the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee rivers in NSW, the Campaspe River at Rochester in Victoria and in the Tamar catchment in Tasmania.

Rain fell on catchments where water storages and river levels were high and soils were already wet after two years of above average rainfall.

“Major weather systems brought significant rainfall to southern and eastern Australia with four months of very wet conditions between August and November 2022,” the bureau said.

“There were three major climate drivers influencing Australia's above average rainfall at this time: La Nina, a negative Indian Ocean Dipole and a positive Southern Annular Mode.”

While flooding in 2010/11 flooding was more widespread nationally, flooding in the second half of 2022 was more prolonged in the southern Murray-Darling Basin.

Click here to read the statement.