âBlack waterâ: The three Australian sites that are ground zero for climate change Weâre sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss Normal text size Very large text size In the summer of 2011, as flooding across Victoria and Queensland killed 35 people and left a $14 billion damage bill, something very different was happening on the other side of the country. Record summer ocean temperatures up to 5C above average represented the worst marine heatwave Western Australia had ever seen. Healthy seagrass in Shark Bay. Credit:Paul Lavery Coral also bleached at the Abrolhos Islands and off the Pilbara coast.