What happens in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean is all connected and can be found in historical records. If it's wet in Africa it will be dry in Australia and vice versa etc etc.
Early settlers up north who had knowledge of other parts of the empire began to see the connection, and when Japanese researchers identified the Indian Ocean Dipole it all became clear.
The influence of the IOD extends to rainfall in the southern parts of eastern Australia. The old adage of look up, and look west if anyone wants to know what the weather is going to be is still true.
