As Australian law firm M&A practices tout an upflow of work in the area, new results released by data provider Dealogic show that the dollar volume of Australian deals reached a record $104.8 billion through 2 September, up 74 per cent from last year. 

An article published by The Wall Street Journal deal blog notes the "booming" state of M&A in the "land Down Under". 

"Compare that to global and US M&A, which are down 32 per cent and 35 per cent, respectively, this year. 

But, before deal makers start booking their flights to Australia, the WSJ warns, they should note that Rio Tinto's $58 billion deal with BHP Billiton accounts for 55 per cent of that volume. "Without that deal, M&A would be off about 20 per cent this year."