Droughts are getting worse because of climate change (and of course in Australia droughts make bushfires worse because there is more dry scrub, and hazard reduction burns are too dangerous to do).
Hey gd1, your comment is dead so I can't reply. But here is your BOM citation (it also has your requested timeseries data):
Australia's driest year on record
Nationally-averaged rainfall 40% below average for the year at 277.6 mm
The national total rainfall for 2019 was 40% below the 1961–1990 average at 277.6 mm (the 1961–1990 average is 465.2 mm). This makes 2019 the driest year in the 119 years since 1900.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-17/drought-bushfire-seas... (note that this is before the current bushfires)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26172867
Droughts are getting worse because of climate change (and of course in Australia droughts make bushfires worse because there is more dry scrub, and hazard reduction burns are too dangerous to do).
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/06/water-re...