Something strange is happening in Australia.
The clocks have changed and the nights are getting darker. The mornings have freshened up and the sun is sitting lower in the sky. The average temperature has dropped and daily life is becoming a little chilly. Winter has officially arrived in the southern hemisphere. Or has it?
You see, unless I’m mistaken, the other telltale signs of winter are missing.
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Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons Richard Gifford |
It’s 7 o’clock in the morning, I’m walking my dog and it’s bloody freezing. It may be a balmy 10 degrees Celsius by northern hemisphere standards but, after five years of acclimatisation here, I’m positively chilled to the bone. As I nod to the neighbour and acknowledge my fellow dog walkers, I sense something is not quite right. Where are their outer garments? No jackets, no jumpers, not even a glove. This seems unusual given the nip in the air but perhaps they left home in a hurry?
I drive to my office in Sydney, with the heating turned up and the windows wound tight. Rain clouds threaten overhead and the harbour looks murky and grey. As I slow down for the city exit, a stream of cars pass me by – a Jeep with its top down, a convertible Saab with the roof folded back, and a smart looking Beamer with sunroof wide open. I am struck by the bravado of these drivers on such a dreary morning. Surely they’re feeling the cold?
At lunchtime, I brave the wind tunnels that form between the Sydney office blocks and gaze in awe at the number of female Sydneysiders tottering down the street in small scraps of clothing. Wearing what can only be described as fashion normally confined to the bedroom, they negotiate the bustling pavements with scant regard for the day’s cool temperatures. Perhaps Australian women are a tougher breed than I realised?
Later that day, I head home after work. Soon after purchasing a house on Sydney’s Northern Beaches at a price that would make your hair go curly, I discovered to my displeasure that our heavily mortgaged house did not actually have any heating. Purchased in the middle of an Australian summer, I laughed this off as a non-issue but, upon entering the house on this wintry evening, I can almost hear the estate agent laughing right back.
The house is so cold that a hot mist escapes from my mouth. Not only is there no heating but also no insulation, no double pane glass, and no longer any carpet. I also now possess the world’s single most expensive electric heater, which I plug into the wall and watch helplessly as the warm air drifts up out the ceiling and evaporates through the walls. Maybe the original house builders forgot to install the heating?
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Photo credit: Flickr Creative Commons Tatters |
I sit down and weigh things up. I have seen no jackets, hats or gloves being worn. I have watched open-top cars cruise past, then watched scantily-clad female city workers navigate the business district. Now I sit in my unheated house. And all this set against the onset of winter. I seem to be the only person aware that winter is here and apparently the only one feeling the cold. I start to suspect there is a case of Australian denial taking place. A refusal on the part of Aussies to accept that winter is really here.
For Australia is, after all, known to its people as God’s country. A place where the sun never stops shining, the sandy beaches are infinitely golden, and the temperature is always turned up high. The very idea of winter goes against everything that Australia stands for. Winter is a grim and depressing affair. It is a time for hibernation, not outdoor pursuits. A time to huddle around the fire as dark nights draw in, not a time to embrace the ‘barbie’ and spend long evenings sat on the deck with a chardonnay in one hand and a jumbo-sized prawn in the other. Winter is for people in the northern part of this world, while Australians will settle for summer any day of the year.
So winter obviously doesn’t fit with the Australian psyche. “It’s un-Australian, mate”, I can almost hear the cry. This would also include complaining about the weather or acknowledging any drop in temperature, judging by the acts of outdoor bravery and courage I witnessed on this unpleasantly cold day.
The winter deniers are out in force here and I must be in the minority. Forget talk of picturesque frosty mornings or cosy nights spent in the warm. Winter is a taboo subject and a season that Australians seem keen to ignore.
Have you experienced winter in Australia and how did you find it (and did you acknowledge it out loud!)? Did you even know that it gets cold in Australia?
Mate,
Could have written this myself. After living in North Carolina, London, and Dublin, we are freezing coming back home.
Aussie homes just aren’t built for it, and we have been talking about this everyday lately, lol
Seriously, we find winters easier to deal with in the Northern hemisphere where it gets 5 times colder, just because those players are built for it.
Where’s my central heating, cosy pub, and pint of Guiness???
Like you, I’m a nothern hemispherer; I’ve only visited the southern hemisphere, never lived there. So while I’ve always known of the winter/summer flip-flop, it’s still strange to have someone write a post I could have last November here in Nederland. The first beach photo is a dead-ringer for our North Sea beaches in winter. (Okay, surfers et al usually stick with wetsuits in summer.) However will you keep warm at home???
@Craig – It’s too funny, isn’t it? Australia does summer so well but it does winter pretty badly. I lived in Canada, which was cold to say the least, yet I feel colder here!
At least up on the Central Coast maybe, just maybe, it’s a little bit warmer for you guys? 🙂
I’ll be in the UK in one week’s time so let’s see how well/badly they are currently doing summer there…
Thanks for popping over to comment – chat again soon.
@Linda – I’ll never fully accept the winter/summer flipflip (something deep down inside rebels against in being winter in the middle of June). Here is an earlier post I wrote on this – http://www.insearchofalifelessordinary.com/2010/12/does-santa-wear-board-shorts.html
How will I keep warm? Last night was a challenge as it dropped to close to zero degrees and our little heater couldn’t keep up.
The answer is to insulate the whole building or find a better house. The problem is that where we live is full of ‘weekenders’ (houses originally designed for a weekend get-away) so many of them aren’t designed for cold weather. Most people grit their teeth and wish away the next month or two… then the summer returns before you know it!
Oh so true, at least if you’re in NSW or QLD (I’m a Melbourne girl and we tend to take winter a bit more seriously down south, open fires and comfort food and lots of shiraz…).
Reminds me of the few winters I spent in Hong Kong – yes, they may only last a few weeks and yes they rarely drop below 10 degrees but no one is prepared for it – no warm clothes, no heating – so they really take you by surprise! I spent many a night shivering on the couch wearing beanies and gloves and pretty much every layer of clothing I owned.
In contrast, we’ve just made it through our first winter in Seoul, Korea and it was bitter – snow, sleet, some days the highest temp was -7! But everything is nicely heated, there are wooly scarves and thermal underwear for sale on every street corner, and there are many strategically placed underground shopping centers to escape to when the cold gets all too much. Korean’s know how to do winter!
@ejorpin – I’ve never spent a winter down in Melbourne but I hear it can get chilly. The shiraz part has to help though? 🙂
I was just speaking to my colleague who told me that a friend of hers had spent winter in the UK, Sweden and Canada. Upon returning to Australia in the middle of winter, she decided that she had never been as cold as she was in Oz. This is surely the greatest unknown secret of the world – Australian winters are cold!
I remember Canada had some great underground shopping malls, particularly Calgary (all offices were connected by above-ground walkways) and Montreal (it was almost as if a second city existed underground). A lot of fun to experience.
As a native of Los Angeles and coming to Sydney in July, from New Zealand, it was like coming home. Everyone is so weak!!! I felt winter in Sydney was just like home. 60’s (F), sunny, 5 days of rain a year, yet the complaints of cold never end!!! I had just come from a very windy, wet and cold Auckland and just rolled my eyes (happily) at all the whingers. It was like coming home!!!
@Rebecca – Hi and thanks for the LA perspective! After Auckland, it must indeed have felt balmy here… I have to acknowledge that I’m looking out of my window right now and it’s sunny, with blue skies, clear and crisp – beautiful weather.
I’m off to the UK in a couple of days and the temps here are currently warmer than there which is entering summer so no more complaining from me but… my house is still freezing cold at night 🙁
I have lived in Sydney for many years and indeed, Sydney winters are cold – at night. But, during the day time with the sun shining it can easily be in the low 20s. So unlike winters in the traditionally cold places of the world we have to suffer the extreme cold when it is time to wake up, but we can enjoy some balmy day times in the sunshine.
@Anonymous – And this week has been no exception with temperatures averaging 22 degrees in the day. It has definitely been lovely to be out and about in. Thanks for your comment.
I can somewhat relate, Russell. I was in Sydney once, and it was early spring. I wished I had taken my winter coat when everyone else was cosy in their sweaters or even t-shirts. But then you also see Aussies walking around in flip-flops and shorts when it’s cold in London!
@Christina – I have seen this in both Sydney and in London! I can be in a local supermarket in the middle of winter here with folks walking past me barefoot… and it would easily be only 10 degrees outside, dark and wet. Saying all that, it is 24 degrees today and it is warmer than the UK where I am headed in two day’s time. So maybe winter isn’t such a big deal here?
Wow, I definitely won’t be in denial when there are chills!! I can’t stand the cold…and it’s not that hard to decipher since I live in the tropics:) When I was in Perth during late spring last year, I could already feel the cold when the sun sets (even hours before it). Winter chills are definitely worse, although sometimes for us who are from the tropics, we do wish that there are lower temperatures like these when we are suffering under the hot blazing sun!:p
Having done the reverse journey to you – Australia to Northern Germany, I can safely say that I felt warmer in Germany during our -15C winter nights than I felt in Sydney during our 5C nights. Australians really need to stop kidding themselves that they don’t need insulation and heating.
However, to survive Sydney winter nights, I recommend a good doona, fluffy bed socks and about 3 layers of clothes.
@Christy – Definitely when the sun sets in the evening and before it rises in the morning, it is cold in Sydney! The days are lovely but winter is here for sure.
@Riayn – Thanks for the very useful advice, Riayn! I’d also add a decent electric blanket and an extra blanket or two on the bed at night.
I lived in Canada through -45 degree winters and those places are certainly built for the cold so you always feel pretty warm. I only wish Sydneysiders would realise that a 5 degree night can feel pretty cold too!
Aussies are definitely in denial here when it comes to winter and need to catch up with the rest of the world – give me insulation and heating please!!! 🙂
when I first moved here 20 years ago my husband and I huddled round the gas burner on the stove .Im always telling my relocating clients to look for heating in their rental accomadation
That’s good advice, Lesley. Especially as it gets cold enough to need it here in winter.
Well, I’m from Finland where winters get more than “freezing” at -20C but to be honest, I’m colder here…and what’s with the Aussies? Are they thicker-skinned or don’t they feel the coldness as they go through life in their T-shirts and shorts in their come winter or summer…
Winter is so fleeting (particularly here in Queensland) that it’s best to just pretend it doesn’t exist. Yep, denial.
I recently spent some time in Japan. We (me and a fellow Aussie traveller) stayed in a very cool couchsurfer house with six Europeans. You had to duck through our room to use the bathroom. Every single person who came through our room pointed out the existence of the heater and suggested we may want to use it.
Being from Europe they were all used to indoor heating and getting around indoors in tshirts! I cannot imagine what their heating bills must be like. Maybe we’re also a bit tighter with our cash ;P
Hi Peteriina, I think it’s a combination of being thick-skinned and also pretending that it doesn’t get cold. I have a friend who works on a construction site and will turn up for work at 6am every morning of the year in shorts and t-shirt no matter the weather.
Where as I’ve stood at the bus stop in winter freezing my butt off and wondering if I’ve got less thick-skinned the longer I’ve lived here. It’s a strange one for sure!
Hey Lisa, thanks for stopping by.
Us Europeans are definitely more liberal with the central heating. On a return back to England in June last year, my parents had the indoor heating on… in June… in summer. The weather wasn’t great but really? I think if it’s there at your disposal, you’ll use it.Now winter is kicking in here in Sydney and I’m wondering just how I’ll heat my house with two plug-in heaters. That said, I am looking forward to the cooler weather 😉
I completely agree! It is now 2012 and I have been here since January 2008 so my 4th Winter here and brrr!!!!!! I am from Southern England and I know it is colder there i n the winter, but I swear I have never felt so cold! Uninsulated houses, no double glazing, no central heaitn, air conditioning on in offices and all buildings even in the cold!! I mean why???! Then they wonder why we all get ill in the winter brrr!! I wnat to be warm again! Ah well best wait until October! Goign to england for Christmas in dEcember , bit worried how I will cope… but then at least there will be central heating, proper coats and double glazing… Can I pelase spend most of the year in sydney but escape every Winter??!
Hi Nat, pleasure to meet you and thanks for your comment. Good luck with the visit to England in December. I did the same thing a few years ago and remember going out for an early morning jog. I must have been the only person running on the streets – people sat in their warm cars staring at me as I tried to negotiate the mud and ice. All that to say, I only went for the one run!
I always wondered why Sydneysiders talked of escaping north to Queensland in the winter. I mean, how cold could it be here? But, you’re so right. It’s the lack of heating and thin walls in our houses that make us want to run for the hills. Someone I work with told me she sits in her home wearing three layers of clothes and a beanie at this time of year whereas her son in London wears a t-shirt around his house in winter. How different can two places be? Roll on summer…
Where are you from in England? I am also a Southerner 🙂