Spending on household goods drove the turnaround, climbing 4.1% and electrical and electronic goods retailing grew by 9.2%, largely due to the release of the Apple iPhone 6.
Spending on cafes, restaurants and takeaway food was also significantly higher, climbing 2%, and the department store sales grew by 1.3%. Clothing rose by 0.4% while other retailing fell 0.2%.
New South Wales led the states, spending 1.7% more than in August 2014 in seasonally-adjusted terms, with Victoria and Western Australia posting a 1.3% growth. The quarterly results also marked an improvement from the same period of 2013, as sales grew by 1% in September 2014.
On 3 November 2014, the National Australia Banks online retail sales index showed internet shopping growth by 12.8% in the year to September 2014, their fastest rate since March 2014. Online retail contributed 2.8% to total retail turnover in original terms.
However, in the US and UK retail sales fell 0.3% in September 2014, while German sales slumped 3.2%, their biggest drop since 2007 and French sales fell 0.8%.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now