Weekly Australian Climate, Water and Agricultural Update, 30 October 2025

Key issues

• In the week ending 29 October 2025, cold fronts and low-pressure troughs brought rainfall to parts of eastern and central Australia.
  • Rainfall was highly variable across cropping regions. Little to no rainfall was recorded across cropping regions of Western Australia, much of South Australia, northern Victoria, and parts of south-western New South Wales and Queensland, while parts of eastern Queensland, northern New South Wales, and southern Victoria saw up to 50 millimetres.
  1. Ongoing dry conditions across parts of northern Victoria and South Australia as well as across parts of southern New South Wales continue to present an increased downside production risk for pastures and winter crops which are in their final yield-determining growth stages.
  2. Rainfall across Queensland and northern New South Wales is benefitted soil moisture levels and the planting, establishment and growth of summer crops, but is likely to have disrupted the harvest of winter crops.
• Over the coming eight days to 6 November 2025, some rainfall is expected across most cropping regions.
  • If realised, falls in southern cropping regions would provide some much-needed moisture for crop and pasture growth but may be too late to prevent declines in expected crop yields in some areas of Victoria, South Australia and southern New South Wales.
• The northern rainfall onset (the start of the wet season) for 2025–26 has arrived in some central and northern areas of the Northern Territory, Queensland, and Western Australia. However, the northern rainfall onset has not yet occurred across much of Australia’s tropical north outside of these areas.
• Water storage levels in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) decreased by 96 gigalitres (GL) between 23 October 2025 and 30 October 2025. The current volume of water held in storages is 14,900 GL, equivalent to 67% of total storage capacity. This is 12% or 2,089 GL less than the same time last year. Water storage data is sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology.
• Allocation prices in the Victorian Murray below the Barmah Choke increased from $316/ML on 23 October 2025 to $318/ML on 30 October 2025.