The flow regime of a river shapes the evolutionary and ecological processes which occur within the river and its floodplains. Critical flow components such as magnitude, frequency and duration of a specific flow condition structure river ecosystems. These flow characteristics contribute to the hydrological regime on floodplains via lateral connection between the river and its floodplain. Understanding how these flow components have changed under current flow conditions is vital in determining the impacts of flow regulation and how environmental water contributes to important components of the flow regime. Here we calculate the frequency of a range of flow components and characteristics of the flooding regime using flow data from the Lachlan River in western New South Wales, Australia under current flow conditions and compare these to modelled pre-development flow conditions using 130 years of daily flow data. Further, we describe the contribution that (held) environmental water and translucent flows (planned environmental water) have made to the regulated flow regime since 2014 in the context of the natural flow regime. Under pre-development (natural) flow conditions, the Lachlan River would have experienced greater volumes of water, greater variation in the flow regime, and larger flow events that connect the river to the floodplain would have been much more frequent and greater in magnitude. Over the past eight years environmental water has contributed to small fresh flows in the Lachlan River, reinstating 10 small fresh events. Translucent flows have made a substantial contribution to a range of the flow categories, particularly evident in the different wetland inundation event categories, where translucent flows have reinstated nearly all inundation events that occurred under current conditions over the past eight years. These results highlight the role of both types of environmental water in the Lachlan River system and illustrates how water managers optimize their portfolio.