Drought in Australia - Drought in The 20th Century

Drought in The 20th Century

During the severe, Australia wide, 1902 Federation Drought the total sheep population dropped to fewer than 54,000,000 from a total of 106,000,000 sheep in 1891 and cattle numbers fell by more than 40 per cent. It was 1925 before the sheep numbers reached the hundred-million mark again.

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. In the 1911-1915 period, Australia suffered a major drought which resulted in the failure of the 1914 wheat crop.

During 1918 to 1920 a severe drought was experienced by Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Northern Territory (Darwin-Daly Waters area and central Australia), Western Australia (Fortescue area), Victoria, and Tasmania.

During World War II, eastern Australia suffered dry conditions which lasted from 1937 through to 1947 with little respite. The end of the drought coincided with the 1946-47 Ashes series, it rained in all 25 matches played by the tourists, including two tropical rainstorms during the First Test at Brisbane and another in the Second Test at Sydney. From 1965-68 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. 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 overall 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-Nino 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.

A very severe drought occurred in the second half of 1991 which intensified in 1994 and 1995 to become the worst on record in Queensland. This drought was influenced by a strong El Nino 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 10 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 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.

=Drought

Around 2000 Australia was prone to wet weather brought on by La Niña influenced weather patterns.

Then from 2003 a long, severe drought, again the worst on record was experienced in many parts of Australia.