Estuary Water Elevation Research ( EWER ) Dataset: Observational Data for Studying and Quantifying Water Level‐Related Hazards in Australia's Tidal Environments

Estuaries are on the frontline of sea‐level rise impacts around Australia but remain poorly represented in existing public water level research datasets in Australia. Here we present the Estuary Water Elevation Research (EWER) dataset, which comprises data equivalent to 12,072 years of continuous non‐flagged water level observations from 724 unique gauges across tidal environments, principally estuaries, but also bays and open‐coast sites. The dataset brings together disparate national and state agency records to improve coverage of estuarine systems, including upstream tidal rivers that are often excluded from ocean‐focused products. We describe the origins of the data and a consistent quality control framework used to assign diagnostic flags identifying potential spikes, outliers, datum shifts and periods of riverine influence. We provide information on the organisation of the dataset and possible use cases. Together, the EWER dataset provides a consistent, national‐scale foundation to support research and decision‐making on estuarine water‐level change and its associated hazards under sea‐level rise.