Global climate variability during the late Quaternary is commonly investigated within the framework of the ‘bipolar seesaw’ pattern of asynchronous temperature variations in the northern and southern polar latitudes. The terrestrial hydrological response to this pattern in south-eastern Australia is not fully understood, as continuous, high-resolution, well-dated proxy records for the hydrological cycle in the region are sparse. Here we present a well-dated, highly resolved record of moisture balance spanning 30000–10000 calendar years before present (30–10 ka BP), based on x-ray fluorescence and organic carbon isotope (δ¹³C_OM) measurements of a sedimentary sequence from Lake Surprise in south-eastern Australia.