Bedding characteristics of the fluvial Hawkesbury Sandstone (Triassic) of the Sydney Basin are most readily explained in terms of a model of flood‐ and falling‐stage vertical accretion derived from Coleman's study of the Brahmaputra. This model suggests inadequacies in present concepts of ‘braided stream’ deposits based on observations made at low stage. A Brahmaputra model may be widely applicable to continental sheet sandstones.