How Cold Is Winter In Australia (2024)

On her last morning, a crisp, clear 5°C (41°F) day, she stood outside and breathed in the eucalyptus-scented air. She realised the truth: Australian winter isn’t cold the way a Russian winter is cold. It’s not a dramatic, villainous cold. It’s a cheeky, underhanded cold. It’s the cold of uninsulated houses and perpetual drafts. It’s the cold of a June afternoon that feels like spring, then turns into November’s cruel joke an hour later. It’s the cold that makes you respect the hardiness of a people who invented the outdoor heated swimming pool and call 15°C “freezing.”

In the global imagination, Australia is the land of sun-scorched earth, endless beaches, and Christmas barbecues under a blistering December sky. So, when French exchange student Amélie told her Melbourne friends she was most looking forward to escaping the bitter European winter, they exchanged a knowing, silent glance. “Oh, you’ll be fine,” they said. “It’s not really cold.” how cold is winter in australia

“…A damp dry cold.”

But the Australian alpine cold was different. It was fickle. At 9 AM, it was -2°C (28°F) and blindingly bright, the sun so intense it burned her exposed nose even as her toes turned to marbles inside her rental boots. By 2 PM, it was 6°C (43°F) and she was sweating in her thermal layer. By 4 PM, a sleety wind roared across the plateau, turning exposed skin raw. She watched a ski instructor, a man named Bruce with a leathery face, eat a popsicle while wearing shorts. He had been in the shade for three hours. On her last morning, a crisp, clear 5°C

She began layering. Two pairs of socks. Leggings under jeans. Her one hoodie under a borrowed fleece, under a rain jacket that smelled vaguely of possum. She looked like a colourful, frustrated onion. Mornings became a ritual of dread. The bathroom, tiled and unheated, was a cryogenic chamber. The shower was a trap: warm water heaven, followed by the towel—damp from yesterday, never fully drying—that stuck to her skin like a cold, wet ghost. It’s a cheeky, underhanded cold