Figure 2

Murrumbidgee river heights at Hay and Wagga Wagga; annual inflows at Blowering Dam and Burrinjuck Dam. (a) Murrumbidgee river heights (m) at the Hay town gauge and Hay PID for (April–September) 1874 to 2019. There are concurrent readings at the two locations from 1968 to 1982. The first April height every 5 years is indicated. The river flood level is marked (dashed black line) at 6.7 m. Of the six months April-September the most recent maximum weekly river height value for each individual month exceeding the flood level of 6.7 m, are designated. Note that since 1991 there have no April–September flood height exceedance peaks and the most recent June flood height exceedance was 5 June 1956, (b) Murrumbidgee river heights at Wagga Wagga (April to September) 1885–2019. The minor flood level is marked (dashed black line) at 7.3 m. Note that since 1991 there has been only one minor flood level reached in 1995 and one major in 2016, (c) annual volume storage (%) for Blowering Dam indicating precipitation inflows from 1975 to 2019. Note that there is a rapid increase followed by a long decline as a result of the 2010–2012 La Niña and in 2016 as a result of a strong IOD influence, (d) annual volume storage (%) for Burrinjuck Dam indicating precipitation inflows from 1913 to 2019. Note the similar rapid increase in 2010 followed by a long decline from 2012 and in 2016, as in (c).