{"id":561111,"date":"2026-03-24T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561111\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T12:41:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T12:41:16","slug":"report-finds-above-average-conditions-despite-drought-and-coral-bleaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/561111\/","title":{"rendered":"Report finds above average conditions despite drought and coral bleaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Caitlin<\/p>\n

March 24, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm<\/p>\n

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High rainfall in 2025 filled Australia\u2019s inland rivers and lakes and infused the landscape with green across much of the continent, with notable exceptions for drought-stricken areas on the border of NSW, Victoria and South Australia and in western Tasmania.<\/p>\n

The Australian National University research found Australia\u2019s environmental conditions remained above average for the fifth consecutive year, based on scores for inundation, streamflow, vegetation growth, leaf area, soil protection, tree cover and the number of hot days.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Professor Albert Van Dijk, the chair of water science and management at ANU\u2019s Fenner School of Environment & Society, said last year\u2019s weather matched a longer-term trend of rainfall patterns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe north of Australia is getting wetter, whereas the south of Australia \u2026 has been getting drier winters,\u201d Van Dijk said. \u201cThat\u2019s a long-term trend and that was very clear last year as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the flooding that hit inland Queensland and flowed into NSW and South Australia, filling up Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, caused challenges, it also had benefits, Van Dijk said.<\/p>\n

\"LakeLake Eyre\/Kati Thanda flooding as seen from the air in October. Arid Air\"FloodingFlooding in Lake Eyre\/Kati Thanda flows through the river system, stimulating growth.Arid Air\/Facebook<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the landscape greens up, then most species tend to benefit from that, directly or indirectly, and if floodplains flood, most floodplain species tend to benefit from that,\u201d Van Dijk said. \u201cThat\u2019s even true for people \u2013 graziers are, generally speaking, quite happy in the outback if their floodplains flood. Even though it causes an immediate problem for them, after that, the soils are good to grow some really good grass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scale of zero to 10 measures the environmental conditions compared with typical conditions in the years from 2000 to 2025 \u2013 zero is the worst in the period, five is average and 10 is the best.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The national score for 2025 was 7.4 out of 10, with Queensland performing best against its own benchmark with a score of 8.38 and South Australia the worst at 4.78. Both NSW and Victoria were above average at 6.35 and 5.43 respectively, but had declined since 2024.<\/p>\n

\"Colac,Colac, in Victoria\u2019s south-west, in the midst of drought in April 2025.Jason South\"Flood-affectedFlood-affected areas near Longreach, Queensland, are consistent with the long term weather patterns.Alex Ellinghausen<\/p>\n

South-west Western Australia also had a relatively good year, but Van Dijk said this was about weather rather than a long-term climate trend.<\/p>\n

In both Sydney and Melbourne, established inner suburbs fared better than the outer suburbs.<\/p>\n

Van Dijk said the main driver for differences in suburb performance was development and loss of tree canopy, while western Sydney also had more hot days.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

While Australia\u2019s landscapes fared relatively well, the report details a terrible year for ocean ecosystems. Coral bleaching occurred on both the east and west coast, while a persistent toxic algal bloom devastated the coastal waters off South Australia.<\/p>\n

The World Meteorological Organisation on Monday put out its annual State of the Climate\u00a0report<\/a>, which confirms that the oceans are absorbing 91 per cent of the excess energy trapped in the Earth\u2019s atmosphere. The ocean has been absorbing about 18 times the annual human energy use each year for the past two decades, the report says.<\/p>\n

Get to the heart of what\u2019s happening with climate change and the environment. Sign up for our fortnightly Environment newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"CaitlinCaitlin Fitzsimmons<\/a> is the environment and climate reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. She was previously the social affairs reporter and the Money editor.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"March 24, 2026 \u2014 3:30pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-561111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}