The National Library’s collection includes a range of material related to extreme weather events in Australia’s history and recent past. There are also reputable resources about extreme weather and its triggers available online. A selection of these are listed below.

Print resources

The National Library’s print collection contains a range of material about extreme weather events, including Bushfire Safety, Batten Down the Hatches: Surviving and Rebuilding After a Cyclone and Australia’s Wild Weather. The National Library also holds print material related to specific extreme weather events, such as the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009.

For advice on how to access these materials, see Searching for weather and climate.

Non-print resources

The National Library’s non-print collection includes a variety of material about extreme weather, including a collection of photographs of the destruction caused by the Mackay cyclone, Queensland, January 1918, the Canberra bushfires 2003 oral history project, and flood inundation maps.

For advice on how to access these materials, see Searching for weather and climate.

Online resources

The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) provides a range of information about extreme weather events on their website, including information about drought, significant weather and weather patterns such as cyclones in the tropics in news & reports and extremes tables and maps in extremes and records. The BoM’s national weather services includes knowledge centres for flood, heatwave, drought, tropical cyclone and fire. See climate change for information about global trends.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) offers information about extreme weather events on their website, including bushfires, floods, drought, cyclones, and planning for resilience in the face of these natural disasters.

A kangaroo flees a bushfire, hopping past a house consumed in flames. The letterbox and a small tree are visible in the foreground.
Matthew Abbott, n.d., A Kangaroo Near a Burning House, Escaping the Currowan Bushfire, Lake Canjola, New South Wales, 31 December 2019, nla.cat-vn8548986

The National Library of Australia acknowledges Australia’s First Nations Peoples – the First Australians – as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of this land and gives respect to the Elders – past and present – and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Cultural Notification

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are advised that this website contains a range of material which may be considered culturally sensitive including the records of people who have passed away.

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