Truth Vs Myth
A pleasant myth about Australia, promoted by exported television programs and the tourism board, is that it’s always warm and sunny.
Keep in mind that Australia is a continental landmass plus a number of islands, and is the 6th largest country in the world – approximately 7.7 million square kilometres. We cross three time zones, are a bit bigger than Western Europe and a similar size to continental USA.
This means there are a great variety of weather patterns within Australia and temperatures can range from tropical to temperate, from scorching hot to freezing cold!
If you want to move to Australia and expect sunshine all year round, make sure you think about where you need to move! For those who prefer cooler temperatures, there are also plenty of options.
The Australian Outback, made up of desert and semi-desert, is one of the hottest and driest places in the world. Like many desert regions, it can actually get quite cold in winter with close–to-freezing temperatures overnight.
In the far north of Australia the climate is tropical, with hot and humid weather in summer and almost non-existent winters. In northern Australia’s main city – Darwin – daytime temperatures sit at around 32o Celsius year-round. From November to March, you get monsoonal weather with many days of quite stultifying humidity in January and February and lots of heavy rainfall.
The far eastern seaboard – including Sydney and Brisbane – is technically subtropical and tends to be warm and humid most of the year. The climate in eastern Australia is one of the many reasons the majority of Australians live in these areas. Brisbane winters are exceptionally mild with temperatures barely dropping below 10o Celsius on the coldest nights. Brisbane is stickier than Sydney, with humidity at around 70% in summer.
Capital Cities
Sydney is only slightly cooler in winter and milder in summer, with average temperatures of 26o Celsius and lower humidity.
Perth in Western Australia is more Mediterranean. Hot, dry summers and mild, wet winters, with slightly cooler temperatures south of the capital city.
Anywhere south of Sydney is more temperate, with hotter summers and colder winters. Melbourne itself is still quite a mild temperate climate, with temperatures in the middle of a winter’s day at between 6o and 14o Celsius.
Canberra has warm, dry summers and chilly, frosty winters. Canberra has a higher altitude and its position in the tablelands means snow sometimes falls. However residents will rarely get to build snowmen…they would disappear within a day!
Adelaide also has mild, dry winters and very hot summers. Spring tends to be erratic – windy and rainy – while autumn is a delightful season with the temperature dropping to manageable levels.
Australian Snow
The Snowy Mountains are in the Southern Alps – a mountain range that straddles the states of Victoria and New South Wales. This beautiful area contains Australia’s highest peak – Mount Kosciuszko at 2,228m. While not quite at the level of the Alps in Europe, the “Snowys” is a destination for winter sports since there is a reasonable snowfall throughout the winter months of June through the August. Unlike many parts of Australia, you will experience four distinct seasons in the mountains. Winter temperatures average around 6o Celsius and alpine evenings can be cool all year round.
Lovely Tasmania, with some of the cleanest air in the world, has a cool temperate climate. Winter is much colder here that elsewhere in Australia. Nightly temperature will hover around Oo and winter days will be a chilly 11o
– 13o. Summer days will average 21 winter days – so fairly similar to the north of England but with less rain!
For more information on Australia, where to live and how to migrate, contact us at Hub Migration.