News Bulletin: Australia has had its third hottest year on record

The Bureau of Meteorology says the national mean temperature of 22.76 degrees was almost one degree above the long-term average.

The SES has received 1200 requests for help after damaged wind hit part of Sydney. Source: AAP

Queensland and New South Wales experienced their warmest years since records first were kept in 1910.

Prolonged high sea-surface temperatures also led to the second consecutive year of mass coral-bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef.

The head of climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology, Dr Karl Braganza, has told SBS it was the first back-to-back summer bleaching event on record.