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David Warner improved his average from just 9.5 in the Ashes to 131 in the Australian Test summer to complete one of the quickest cricketing turnarounds.

David Warner completed cricket's greatest turnaround on Monday as he went from one of the worst Ashes series ever to the best Australian summer by an opener.

Just months after the lowest return ever by an opener in a five Test series with 95 runs at 9.5, Warner whacked his third century of the summer against New Zealand on Monday at the SCG.

His 111 helped Australia to a 279-run flogging of the Black Caps, and completed a perfect run for not just the Test team but Warner himself in the red-ball arena.

Warner's run-scoring tally for the summer finished on 786, overtaking Alastair Cook's haul from the 2010-11 Ashes as the most by an opener in a five-Test Australian summer.

Likewise, Warner's average of 131 was also the highest in any Australian summer by an opener, regardless of its length.

"Anyone who knows him and has been around him knows how determined he is to score runs," Australia's captain Tim Paine said.

"When he gets going he normally goes big and gets on a roll.

"I remember talking before the Pakistan series was even picked that his opening record was amazing.

"He had four or five bad Tests in England which can happen but ... we knew if he got in and got one score the runs would flow."

Almost half of Warner's runs came in his 335 not out against Pakistan at Adelaide Oval, the second-highest Test score by an Australian.

His aggregate across all formats now stands at 1050 for the season, after finding his feet again with a century against Sri Lanka in the first Twenty20 of the summer.

"Coming off the back of a poor away series I owed it to the guys," Warner said on ABC radio.

"You always know what you're capable of. Starting off that Twenty20 series really held us in great stead coming into the Test matches."