Flood variability east of Australia’s Great Dividing Range

The variability of flow in river channels influences the spatial and temporal variability of many biophysical processes including the transport of sediment and waterborne pollutants and the recruitment of aquatic animals and plants. In this study, inter- and intra-basin patterns of flood variability are examined for catchments east of Australia’s Great Dividing Range. Three measures of flood variability are explored with uncertainty quantified using bootstrap resampling. The two preferred measures of flood variability (namely a flood quantile ratio and a power law scaling coefficient) produced similar results. Catchments in the wet tropics of far north Queensland experience low flood variability. Flood variability increased southwards through Queensland, reaching a maximum in the vicinity of the Fitzroy and Burnett River basins. The small near-coast catchments of southern Queensland and northern New Wales experience low flood variability. Flood variability is also high in the southern Hunter River and Hawkesbury–Nepean basins. Using L-moment ratio diagrams with data from 424 streamflow stations, we also conclude that the Generalised Pareto distribution is preferable for modelling flood frequency curves for this region. These results provide a regional perspective that can be used to develop new hypotheses about the effects of hydrologic variability on the biophysical characteristics of these Australian rivers.