APPENDIX 2 - BACKGROUND - CLIMATE IN AUSTRALIA The Australian
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) records show that Australia's
climate has been changing over the last half century,
"Australia's temperatures have, on average, risen by about 1°
Celsius with an increase in the frequency of heatwaves and a
decrease in the number of frosts and cold days. Rainfall
patterns have also changed - the northwest has seen an increase
in rainfall...while much of eastern Australia and the far south-
west have experienced a decline"
(www.bom.gov.au/climate/change). Of the four most severe
droughts (in terms of rainfall deficits over a 1 - 2 year
period) in recorded eastern Australian history, three occurred
between the years 1982 and 2003 with the most recent drought
increasing that number to four in the last 25 years (Year Book
Australia, 2005 (cat. no. 1301.0). A recent report on
Australia's climate (Climate Change in Australia), jointly
released by the BoM and the CSIRO, predicts that over the next
30 years temperatures will rise