----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ten Years' Total Average Ten Years' Difference Difference Percentage Place. Number Rainfall Average between for per Annum of for all Rainfall. the Two. Ten Years. above or Years. Years. below True Mean. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Inches. Inches. Inches. Inches. Brisbane 57 47.47 39.16 -8.31 83.10 -18 Sydney 67 48.80 44.28 -4.52 45.20 -9 Melbourne 63 26.35 25.50 -0.85 8.50 -3 Perth 31 33.03 32.54 -0.49 4.90 -1 Hobart 66 23.38 22.98 -0.40 4.00 -2 Adelaide 67 20.89 20.53 -0.36 3.60 -2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The following table supplies similar information with respect to seventeen representative Queensland stations, from which it will be seen that the mean annual rainfall at Geraldton for twenty-one years was 145.27 inches, and for the ten years subsequent to 1896 135.81 inches. Thus Geraldton is by far the wettest place in the State. The lightest mean rainfall for the same period was at Boulia, which recorded 11.45 inches; and for the ten years, 8.72 inches. The last column of the table shows that the fall for the ten years was under the average at every station mentioned, the shortage at Cooktown having been 28 per cent. each year of the ten. The number of wet days is not supplied, except for the capital cities. The driest part of Australia--that which receives a rainfall of 10.0 inches and under--comprises an area equalling nearly one-third of the Commonwealth, and includes the central Territory of South Australia, the extreme western parts of New South Wales, the south-western parts of Queensland, and the south-eastern, central, and part of the north-western portions of Western Australia. The limits of this dry area are shown by the 10.0-inch isohyetal line:--