The Diamantina's live level up the valley at Diamantina Lakes, alongside the town's own gauge — an early read on whether a flood pulse is heading down toward Birdsville, often days before it arrives.
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The Diamantina reaches Birdsville from far to the north, and the water that floods the roads here often fell as rain days earlier, hundreds of kilometres upstream. This page reads the live gauge up the valley at Diamantina Lakes alongside the town's own gauge, so you can see a rise coming before it arrives. It is not a flood warning — the official warnings come from the Bureau of Meteorology, linked below.
Steady upstream
These gauges sit above the town on the same river, so they rise before the water reaches it. A rising reading here is an early sign of water on the way — not a flood forecast, and not the order they arrive in.
Upstream gauges
Diamantina Lakes
≈ 300 km upstream
No current reading
Steady over the past few days. Measured 30 Jun, 18:00.
This gauge hasn’t reported in a few hours, so it isn’t a live reading.
Here in town
Birdsville
In town
No current reading
Steady over the past few days. Measured 30 Jun, 1:45.
This gauge hasn’t reported in a few hours, so it isn’t a live reading.
The official flood warning is at Bureau of Meteorology — Queensland flood warnings
These gauges describe the river. They are not a flood warning — the official flood degree for the town is set by Bureau of Meteorology — Queensland flood warnings.
Official flood warnings for the Diamantina and the Channel Country are issued by the Bureau of Meteorology. These gauges show how the river is moving; the Bureau's warnings tell you what it means. In an emergency, call 000.
Birdsville sits near the bottom of the Diamantina. A rise on a gauge above town is an early sign that water is on its way down — often days before the river reaches Birdsville and spreads across the approach roads. Diamantina Lakes, roughly 300 km up the valley (and further again along the river's winding channels), is the nearest gauge above town with a live public feed.
The water comes from far away
Much of the Diamantina's flow is born in the Queensland ranges hundreds of kilometres to the north, around Winton and Kynuna, and takes days to work its way south through the Channel Country. So the river at Birdsville can rise under a clear sky — local rain here tells you little. The upstream gauge and the Bureau's warnings tell you more.
Between here and the Lakes
The Bureau's flood-warning network also gauges the river at Monkira, between Diamantina Lakes and Birdsville, but that gauge has no live public feed — so this page leads with Diamantina Lakes. When the Bureau issues a Diamantina flood warning it reports Monkira, Durrie and Roseberth on the way down; the warning link above is the fuller picture.