Fish communities across the Queensland Lake Eyre Basin were sampled in April 2007. Flooding preceded the sampling in both the far east (Bulloo River) and far west (Georgina and Mulligan Rivers) of the Basin. In contrast, the Diamantina and Cooper catchments did not experience major summer flooding. The sampling undertaken indicates that previously dry waterholes are likely to be re-colonised en masse by juvenile fish of several species following periods of hydrological connectivity, and that waterholes in central Australia, though ephemeral, are utilised as fish nurseries when water exists. In addition, range extensions were recorded for golden goby, Glossogobius aureus, in the Diamantina catchment, redclaw crayfish, Cherax quadricarinatus, in the Georgina catchment and seven fish species in the previously unsurveyed Mulligan River, which forms the north-eastern boundary of the Simpson Desert.