The Lachlan, Macquarie and Murrumbidgee rivers have suffered flooding as have the upper reaches of the Murray River. Almost all irrigation systems in NSW (the Lachlan is a noteworthy exception) have received 100 percent general security water allocation for the first time in almost a decade. According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, September 2010 was the wettest September since 1998 for the Murray-Darling Basin, an area which includes most of Australia’s agricultural production.
September 2010 was also the wettest September since 2005 for the state of NSW and the coolest month since September 1998. Media reports have stated that this spring (2010) is the wettest on record. Wet and cool conditions, particularly in south eastern NSW and eastern Victoria, also created large volumes of water runoff in the catchment areas where public water storages were depleted. This has dramatically reversed the fortunes of irrigated crops such as citrus (and also rice and cotton).