Data used is the latest available from the National Tidal Centre's Australian Baseline Monitoring Project (ABSLMP ) and other NTC stations to November 2016. This page will be updated both with additional stations as I process them, and new data when available. Where data is continuous, I use a Loess (or Lowess) filter, which is a weighted before-and-after average. It has the advantage over a simple centred running average of spanning the full data range, and the curve appears much smoother.
I've used the SONEL CGPS (Continuous GPS) vertical movement figures where available to adjust calculated trends. Note that if the tide-gauge site is dropping, that increases the measured (relative) rate of rise as seen at the tide-gauge. The rise rate is always added to the tide-gauge rate, so negative CGPS rates reduce the apparent, relative rates. In Northern Scandinavia for example, land is rising at rates greater than sea-level rise, resulting in negative rates calculated for tide-gauges.
Click on any image to see it full-size. To download them right-click on the image and select "save image as" or similar from your browser context menu. If you publish these images or a "hot-link" direct to any image(s) elsewhere, please give attribution and also a link to this page. I intend to make an archive of the original Excel spreadsheets, data files, and these images available on a file-sharing site, in the very best traditions of good scientific publishing, and hence reproducibility.
Click on a red or black dot to jump to the chart for that location. Red dots are ABSLMP (SEAFRAME) stations, black dots other NTC stations. Use your browser [back] button to return here, or click on the [Back to the map] links.
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| Source: Bureau of Meteorology |
Darwin, Northern Territory
Long-term (1959-2016) for Darwin: |
| Darwin 1959 to November 2016 |
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| Darwin, May 1990 to November 2016 |
There's a sharp drop after a distinct peak in 2011; it's ENSO driven - the smoothed red line tracks the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) very well.
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Wyndham, Western Australia
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| Wyndham, WA; 1966-2015 |
The early record is fragmentary, and doesn't lend itself to smoothing; from late 1984 it's complete. The steep ENSO-driven drop from a peak in 2001 is evident.
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Broome, Western Australia
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Onslow, Western Australia
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| Onslow 1985-2015 |
Here, sea-level has dropped to the 1995 level, driven by ENSO cycles.
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Hillarys Boat Harbour, WA
I've used the SONEL CGPS (Continuous GPS) vertical movement figure of -2.78 mm/year to adjust my mapped trend.
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Fremantle, Western Australia
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| Fremantle 1897-2016 |
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| Fremantle 1992 to November 2016 |
Fremantle has the longest sea level history in Australia. The rate of rise dropped to zero between the early 1960s and the early 1990s, driven by ENSO - the SOI (Southern Oscillation Index) drifted down below zero, and sea-level rise at Fremantle followed suit, falling to zero. After about 1993, the SOI climbed positive, and sea-levels on the west and north coasts of Australia began to rise steeply, as seen in the 1992-2016 chart above. That chart also shows the CGPS-adjusted rate for Fremantle; the SW corner of Australia is subsiding at rates between 2 and 3 mm/year.
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Esperance, Western Australia
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Thevenard, South Australia
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Port Stanvac, South Australia
I've left Port Stanvac in as reference though the gauge was removed in 2010 when the surrounding oil refinery was de-commissioned.
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Portland, Victoria
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Lorne, Victoria
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Melbourne, Victoria
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Stony Point, Victoria
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Burnie, Tasmania
There is CGPS data for Burnie, showing subsidence of 1.34 mm/year between 2008 and 2014; I'll update the chart soon.
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Hobart, Tasmania
To be added soon.[Back to the map]
Spring Bay, Tasmania
I'll add the GPS chart later.
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Port Kembla, New South Wales
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Sydney & Botany Bay, New South Wales
Sydney (Fort Denison)
Fort Denison has the second longest sea level history in Australia; only that for Fremantle goes back further.
Botany Bay
To be updated soon.
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Newcastle, New South Wales
This is a reconstruction from the two (overlapping series) tide-gauges, III and V. The record for V to 2015:
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Brisbane, Queensland
To be updated soon.
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Rosslyn Bay, Queensland
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Cape Ferguson, Queensland
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Milner Bay (Groote Eylandt), Northern Territory
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Cocos (Keeling) Islands
The Cocos Islands are far from the NW coast of Australia, but the station is included in the ABSLMP series, I've included it here. To be updated soon.
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