ABSTRACT
Few instrumental climate records in Australasia extend back before A.D. 1900. For example, the Dunedin temperature series (Salinger, 1977) starting in 1853, is the longest continuous New Zealand record. Consequently, for information on climate variations prior to the present century we must rely on indirect sources, from so called ‘proxy’ data. However, much of the proxy data for palaeoclimate studies has a rather coarse temporal resolution. Further-more, the evidence is often contradictory and difficult to interpret in terms of climate (e.g. Burrows & Greenland 1979). Dendroclimatology has, however, been shown to be a promising tool for reconstructing annual to decadal fluctuations in palaeoclimates (Fritts 1976; Hughes et al. 1982) and in this chapter the use of dendroclimatic techniques to reconstruct Australasian climates since A.D. 1500 is reviewed.
