The Murray Darling Basin contains 40% of Australia’s farms and is subject to multi-year droughts that put severe pressure on southeast Australia’s freshwater resources. Yet the long-term frequency, timing and potential severity of these droughts is unknown, as there are few high-resolution paleoclimate records from the basin that extend past the instrumental era. In this study, we investigate the potential of stalagmites from Careys Cave, Wee Jasper, in the Murray-Darling Basin to record past droughts. We use a multiproxy approach of stalagmite stable isotopes, trace element data, and climate reanalysis. We show that (a) stalagmite δ¹⁸O at this site likely records either local or regional precipitation amount and (b) stalagmite δ¹⁸O shows reasonable coherence with decadal-scale wet and dry changes in regional rainfall over the last 150 years, including the Federation Drought (1895–1902). Therefore, stalagmites from Wee Jasper can be used to draw regional inferences about past rainfall and have potential to extend the record of past droughts in the Murray Darling Basin beyond the limits of historical data. Extracting such a record will enable a better understanding of the causes of multi-year droughts in the region and consequently better planning, mitigation, and resilience in the basin.

墨累达令盆地拥有澳大利亚40％的农场，并且遭受多年干旱，给澳大利亚东南部的淡水资源带来了沉重压力。然而，这些干旱的长期发生频率，时间和潜在的严重性尚不清楚，因为该盆地的高分辨率古气候记录很少延续到仪器时代。在这项研究中，我们调查了墨累达令盆地Wey Jasper的Careys Cave的石笋记录过去干旱的潜力。我们使用石笋稳定同位素，痕量元素数据和气候再分析的多代理方法。我们发现，（一）石笋δ ¹⁸ Ø在这个网站可能记录无论是本地或区域降水量和（b）石笋δ ¹⁸O显示了过去150年，包括联邦干旱（1895年至1902年）在内的区域降水的十年尺度干湿变化的合理一致性。因此，来自Wee Jasper的石笋可用于得出有关过去降雨的区域推论，并有可能将Murray Darling盆地过去的干旱记录扩展到历史数据之外。提取此类记录将使人们能够更好地了解该地区多年干旱的原因，从而更好地规划，缓解和增强流域的复原力。