Dozens of sites across northern Australia have suffered significant flooding in recent days, with some river levels continuing to rise after parts of Queensland recorded their highest three-day rainfall totals between Sunday and Tuesday.
The map below shows the status of the more than 90 monitoring stations (many at different points along the same rivers) in New South Wales, the Northern Territory and Queensland, showing minor, moderate or major flooding as of Thursday morning.
Levels at more than half of these stations were still rising or holding steady, but authorities warned that some rivers may not yet have peaked.
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The Bureau of Meteorology defines major flooding as an event that results in extensive flooding, likely isolation of properties and towns and possible evacuation of people from affected areas.
Guardian Australia identified at least 50 river monitoring stations in Queensland and the Northern Territory that have exceeded the “major flooding” threshold since March 5. Even more sites have recorded significantly elevated river heights, but no flood thresholds have been published.
But these warnings are just a blip: if we zoom in on a couple of sites we can see how water levels rose after the huge rains of March 6 and 7 in the Northern Territory and March 9 and 10 in Queensland.
The table below shows river heights compared to flood thresholds for the Katherine River at Katherine Bridge and the Daly River at Daly River Police Station in the NT, and the Burnett River at Bundaberg in Queensland.
Katherine has experienced the worst flooding in decades, with residents warned to stay away from floodwaters due to the risk of sewage overflows and crocodiles. Hundreds of residents near the Daly River were airlifted over the weekend, mostly to Darwin. The BoM said on Wednesday afternoon the River Daly was “likely to remain above the main flood stage for at least next week”. Hundreds of homes and businesses have also been flooded in Bundaberg after the Burnett River burst its banks following a tropical low.
The flooding comes after hundreds of millimeters of rain over the past week – Tipperary in the NT was one of several places to record more than 100mm of rain on consecutive days.
The map below shows daily rainfall since March 6. Measurements are usually taken at 9 a.m. and show rainfall from the previous 24 hours. It shows the torrential rain that first hit parts of the Northern Territory over the weekend, with Queensland hardest hit on Monday and Tuesday.
Across Australia, summer 2025-26 was the wettest in almost a decade, according to the BoM, with rainfall 32% higher than average across the country.
Preliminary data suggested Darwin’s wet season would be the seventh wettest on record, according to the BoM’s Daniel Hayes. Katherine is on track for its fifth wettest rainy season.
