Rainfall is highly variable both spatially and temporally, which is mainly connected to large-scale atmospheric and oceanic phenomena. Hydrologic extremes (i.e. floods and droughts) are linked to the variability in rainfall across a range of spatiotemporal scales. Heavy rainfall events on short time intervals (e.g., flash floods), in particular, often impose potential risk to life, infrastructure, and private property. Sub-hourly rainfall extremes are also recognised as important drivers of soil erosion. Severe soil erosion can occur in the arid and semiarid regions, especially after long dry periods. Soil erosion is an important risk factor for pastoral and agricultural production as well as downstream water quality. To address the impacts of sub-hourly rainfall extremes in the design of water sensitive urban and rural infrastructure and the development of suitable land management practices, the availability of sub-hourly rainfall data with the adequate record length and spatial coverage is vital. However, rainfall data at sub-hourly timescales are absent or limited in terms of the record length and spatial coverage in much of the world including remote areas of Australia. Given the availability of satellite-derived precipitation products (SPPs) at fine spatiotemporal resolutions and quasi-global coverage, the objectives of this thesis were to develop SPPs for use in water resources management. The products/approaches are developed in this thesis using Australia as a test location. The SPPs were developed by: (a) evaluating several SPPs over the diverse precipitation regimes of Australia, (b) investigating new methods of using SPPs to derive intensity-frequency-duration (IFD) curves for sub-hourly durations, and (c) exploring the utility of SPPs in estimating sub-hourly rainfall intensities as input to rangeland runoff models.