Environmental Hazards

30/07/2025

24/04/2025

"After a lot of hard work collating, analysing and validating accuracy, here's some highlights on what they found after TC Alfred 👇

📈 Off Tweed Heads, we saw a wave reach 13.91m – that's taller than the average 4-storey building and the biggest wave in the site’s 5-year history! 🤯
📈 Caloundra's highest wave was 7.75m which is its largest wave in 12 years.
📈 Palm Beach recorded its highest wave in 8 years with a wave measuring 10.36m.
📈 Storm surge heights exceeded the highest astronomical tide line in Shorncliffe and Maroochydore - that's the highest level an area is predicted to be able to reach during extreme conditions."

It's official, multiple records broken! 🌊

Ever wonder how the news gets its information on wave heights during severe weather? Our scientists at our Hydraulics Lab are behind it all! Using wave monitoring buoys and storm tide gauges, the team collects data to understand how storms affect our coasts which plays a critical role in coastal planning and safety.

After a lot of hard work collating, analysing and validating accuracy, here's some highlights on what they found after TC Alfred 👇

📈 Off Tweed Heads, we saw a wave reach 13.91m – that's taller than the average 4-storey building and the biggest wave in the site’s 5-year history! 🤯
📈 Caloundra's highest wave was 7.75m which is its largest wave in 12 years.
📈 Palm Beach recorded its highest wave in 8 years with a wave measuring 10.36m.
📈 Storm surge heights exceeded the highest astronomical tide line in Shorncliffe and Maroochydore - that's the highest level an area is predicted to be able to reach during extreme conditions.

But that's not all the Hydraulics Lab does, they also provide technical expertise in coastal engineering and modelling, supporting policy, research and planning. Their work is vital in understanding and mitigating the impacts of severe weather events like Tropical Cyclone Alfred so we can better prepare our communities and build a more resilient coastline.

17/12/2024

The "Geochron January" workshop is running for the 4th year! The event consists of 10 pre-recorded presentations that you can watch anytime, and two optional breakout sessions to interact with the presenters if you have any questions on the talks and the methods presented.
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This year’s workshop, Looking to the Future: Modeling Coastal Change, will be held on Thursday, 16 January 2025. This workshop is free and will be fully virtual. Once again following the theme of IGCP 725, it will cover the basics “from cores to code”. Presentations will cover diverse topics in modeling coastal change, from dunes to deltas, tsunamis, storms & sea level, and longer-term shoreline change and coastal evolution.

Please register by January 10 at this link: https://forms.office.com/e/40QKUp1b1Y

29/10/2024

Australia is becoming dryer, with a rapid decline (30%) in the number of tropical cyclones from 1970 to 2000

According to a handful of new research, the number of low-pressure systems around Australia is decreasing, bringing predictions of a future, dryer climate.

24/09/2024

"Fully funded berths are available on the next CAPSTAN voyage in March 2025 for postgraduate and undergraduate students and trainers."

24/09/2024

Garage doors blast open and tree branches become projectiles in footage which captures a tornado slicing through Victoria's High Country in August.

18/09/2024

A talk on "What does a disaster management Geographer do in the Qld government?" on 1st of Oct. The speaker, Dr Allison Rifai, will give some info on internships in the presentation. Sign up for it if you are interested!

RGSQ student membership is free

Dr Allison Rifai, Executive Manager, Research and Communications, Queensland Government’s Office of the Inspector-General of Emergency Management.

09/09/2024

With the NSW Hunter Region in the midst of an "earthquake swarm", and mining found to have caused tremors overseas, could it be the cause here too?

09/09/2024

Job openings

We regularly offer great professional and research opportunities for researchers, partners and prospective employees.