The unprecedented floodwaters have led to the highest water flows in years across the Murray-Darling basin, yet native fish are dying — and the situation is expected to worsen.
Hundreds of stranded people in Australia’s southeast region were rescued by helicopters and boats on Tuesday after rivers rose rapidly, inundating houses and cutting off entire towns.
A third straight year of La Niña conditions, coupled with climate change, has left tens of thousands of people in eastern Australia at risk of displacement.
Torrential rain is lashing Australia's southeast coast, forcing thousands of people from their homes because of the danger of floods and landslides in a region battered by major flooding four times in the past 18 months.
Dozens of the nation’s top emergency chiefs, who spoke out in the wake of the devastating bushfires two years ago, have now criticised the Morrison government’s “fumbling” response to the floods disaster.
Brisbane River's polystyrene pontoons, torn from their moorings in the floods, are breaking up along 300 kilometres of beaches, threatening nesting turtles and raising fears that other marine animals will mistake the white pieces for food.
Several days of downpours have pummeled Queensland, with flooding worsening in the state capital, Brisbane. The state premier described the wild weather as “waves of water just coming down.”
