There is concern that rate of yield gain for major cereal crops (wheat, rice) is declining and this exacerbates concerns about global food security. At the same time sorghum production in Australia has become a more favourable option across the summer dominated rainfall regions of Australia. Here we set out to determine the trend in sorghum yield during the previous three decades across shires of north-eastern Australia. Since rainfall variability is the main causal factor in sorghum yield variability from year-to-year this effect was removed using a seasonal adjustment approach based on regional scale modelling. At national level, yield trends were flat up to the late 1990s, but positive trends were observed after this period to the present, with yield gains averaging better than 2% per annum. This is among the highest levels of crop yield advance globally. In addition, no significant trends have occurred in summer rainfall over this period, which supports the contention that the increase is due to improved technologies associated with varietal improvement and agronomic practice.