Recent theory suggests that ‘background’ biodiversity and the environmental context within which disturbances occur strongly affects the capacity of ecosystems to respond to and recover from disturbance. Using taxon-rich Tasmanian and depauperate southwestern Australian (SWA) streams, we carried out field experiments manipulating a pulse flow disturbance in the context of a large-scale press disturbance (catchment clearing for livestock grazing). The flow disturbance was created by temporary half weirs that created: impeded flow (behind weir wall) and diverted flow, plus an unimpeded flow control for three weeks. In Tas streams, benthic invertebrates were sampled; in SWA streams, both benthic and (artificial) leaf pack invertebrates were sampled, during weir presence and after weir removal. Neither benthic taxon composition nor α-diversity were affected by catchment clearing in streams in SWA or Tasmania. Leaf pack invertebrate α-diversity and composition differed between cleared and uncleared catchments in SWA streams. In Tas streams, catchment clearing influenced the responses of α-diversity and composition to the flow treatments: benthic fauna were highly resilient to combinations of catchment clearing and flow treatment. In contrast, SWA benthic fauna resisted flow disturbance and leaf pack fauna only responded to impeded flow in cleared catchments. The hypothesis that higher biodiversity of benthic fauna (Tasmania) would make stream fauna more responsive to pulse disturbance and quicker to recover was supported. The hypothesis that lower biodiversity (SWA) would make benthic fauna less responsive to pulse disturbance was also supported as they resisted flow treatments. In resisting most effects of flow disturbance, depauperate stream fauna indicated greater tolerance to pulse disturbance than biodiverse fauna. However, although biodiversity influenced the mechanisms by which stream ecosystems responded to disturbance, two months after the pulse disturbance outcomes were similar: limited change in the stream fauna.