Australia’s Warmest Cities During the Winter

On Sunday evening I went for a little walk around Rocks Riverside Park which is in a suburb called Seventeen Mile Rocks, about 10 kilometres south of Brisbane City.

Here’s a photograph taken by somebody smart who owns a smart camera…

Rocks_PanoramaThat photograph is courtesy of the Wikipedia page all about Rocks Riverside Park and its well worth clicking through on that link to read more about the facilities there.

These are the photos I took though…

Rivers Rock 007

Rivers Rock 015

Rivers Rock 019

Rocks Riverside ParkAs you can see, you don’t get to be called a “Riverside Park” unless you are by the riverside.

Winter weather in Australia

It struck me though that it was a really pleasant evening as I walked around the park. It was about half an hour before sundown, the birds were in fine form and it was plenty warm enough for me even though I was wearing just shorts and a T-shirt.

I felt a bit guilty having whinged about the cold weather here last week, but in reality, I never really do complain about the weather in Australia, flooding aside. Winters here are extremely mild, they hardly deserve the label “winter” at all.

But that’s here in Brisbane, what’s it like around the rest of the country?

Australia’s warmest winter cities

Two and a half years ago I did a post looking at Australia’s sunniest cities during the summer of 2010/11. Now let’s take a look at Australia’s warmest winter cities. No prizes for guessing the winner of this contest…

First; Darwin

Darwin Winter WeatherYes, Darwin romps home in first place as Australia’s hottest winter city with, and you should know this if you read about my Darwin adventures, temperatures of around 32°C. Pretty much exactly the same as it was during my 10 days holiday there a few weeks ago.

Interestingly though, Darwin actually came seventh out of eight in the summer chart. Yes, it was hotter than most other cities, but it only gets about the same temperature it enjoys during the winter, that’s 32°C. But during the summer months the forecasts are full of clouds, rain and thunderstorms.

They don’t call summer the wet season there for nothing.

As you can see from the above image though, winters are different with it being mostly sunny and my guess is even when it’s windy, it’ll still be sunny.

Darwin then is easily the warmest city to be in during winter here in Australia.

Second; Brisbane

Second place was a really tough decision. Brisbane, Perth and Sydney were all very close, but in my view, Brisbane nicks it…
Brisbane Winter WeatherAcross the board it is a couple of degrees warmer than Sydney, and a degree a day warmer than Perth. We have two sunny days, one cloudy day and four days with possible showers. But with that possible rainfall throughout the whole week anticipated to be only between 11 mm and 36 mm, it’s unlikely we will see a lot of rain.

For that reason, Brisbane takes second place, but if you have any doubts, just check out those night-time minimum temperatures which are significantly warmer than the other two cities.

It’s a vast improvement on the sixth position it achieved during the disastrous summer of 2010/11 which, as you’ll remember, culminated with the Queensland and Brisbane floods.

Joint Third; Perth & Sydney

Perth grabbed first position in the summer chart, so in taking equal third for winter, this city may just be Australia’s finest for all year round hot or warm and sunny weather.
Perth Winter WeatherTemperatures across the week are higher than Sydney’s, but there is a lot of rain about. 44 mm to 96 mm are forecast for the week. Sydney may be slightly cooler, but there’s certainly more sunshine around…
Sydney Winter WeatherFor Sydney, it’s mostly sunny for the week with just 7 mm to 19 mm of rain predicted. So, really not much between these two, but maybe Sydney nicks it with its slightly warmer minimum temperatures? But it was too close for me to call.

Fifth; Adelaide

Again, almost nothing between Adelaide and Melbourne, but Adelaide just about nips in front…
Adelaide Winter WeatherAdelaide is slightly warmer throughout the week, but could possibly have a teeny-weeny bit more rain than Melbourne. Both cities are forecast to have two sunny days, with Adelaide expecting four showery days and a cloudy day compared with Melbourne’s five showery days.

Adelaide grabbed second spot in the summer contest, with a clean sweep of hot, sunny, with clear blue skies.

Sixth; Melbourne

So why did I place Melbourne behind Adelaide when it was so close? Here’s the chart…
Melbourne Winter WeatherFor these two cities, the decider turned out to be the minimum night-time temperatures which are distinctly colder in Melbourne.

Seventh; Hobart

Again, it was very close between Hobart in Canberra, but Hobart edges it…
Hobart Winter WeatherBoth of these cities are expecting five sunny days and two showery days, but…

Eighth; Canberra

Although Hobart’s daytime temperatures are, on average, one degree lower than Canberra’s, check out the night-time temperatures and the mention of that word “Frost” in the chart for Australia’s capital city…
Canberra Winter WeatherIt looks decidedly shivery in Canberra once the sun goes down and with the possibility of slightly more rain, Canberra guaranteed their position as Australia’s coldest major city during winter in Australia.

That said, we should remember that Canberra pinched fourth position during the summer comparisons, whereas Hobart were stone last.

Tasmania’s capital then is probably the last place in Australia you would want to go to for hot weather, but then again, there are plenty of great reasons to go to Hobart.

Final word

This is only a bit of fun; it really isn’t the final word on which cities are the warmest in Australia during winter. I can’t do that kind of post, because the weather changes. Every day. That’s nature.

Sources for weather charts:

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{ 14 comments… add one }
  • Col B May 11, 2017, 3:52 pm |

    Yep, Canberra is geographically situated between Melbourne and Sydney, one would expect it to be warmer there in winter than Melbourne or Hobart, it is not so. Canberra is around 570 m above sea level. The higher any town or city is above sea level the colder it gets in winter.
    Take for example Toowoomba (QLD), a large regional city 125km from Brissy, is just under 700 m above sea level, has a mean minimum temperature of 12.6 °C as opposed to Brissy’s 16.2 °C.

    • BobinOz May 12, 2017, 4:41 pm |

      Ha ha, yes, I remember driving to Toowoomba from Brisbane with my wife on a beautifully warm spring day, maybe 23°C, wearing just T-shirt and shorts. An hour and a half later we arrived in Toowoomba and got out of the car oblivious that the temperature had plummeted.

      Crikey were we cold! We actually went into a shop and bought some long trousers for my wife, she couldn’t bear it anymore.

      “Would you like them in a bag?” the assistant asked. Not likely, she wanted to wear them.

  • David Holt May 20, 2015, 10:53 am |

    Seventeen Mile Rocks is NOT North of Brisbane City, it is South West.

    • BobinOz May 20, 2015, 9:25 pm |

      Yes, it certainly is south of Brisbane, not north. You are correct and I have now changed it in the article.

      You won’t believe how many times I’ve made this error, ever since moving from England I’ve been mixing up my north with my south every now and then, must be something to do with crossing the hemisphere.

      Thanks for pointing it out.

  • Carol-Anne October 2, 2013, 12:16 am |

    Hi Bob, I live in Mackay Qld and I think we’d be a pretty close second place to Darwin as hottest winter city or maybe Cairns or Townsville. We’ve been around 26 – 28 degrees all winter during the day and lows of about 17 at night. Big change from the Scottish winters I’m used to.

    • BobinOz October 2, 2013, 2:09 pm |

      Yes, it is pretty hot where you are, I wonder what you did with all your old coats and jumpers? I’m still also chuckling about Scots choosing to live in a town called “Mackay” 🙂

  • Kieran July 24, 2013, 6:53 pm |

    Hey bob I’m 14 now and when I’m. 16 I would like to live in Australia can u help me what to do like what visa can I get a job can I buy a house would I get free school fees thank you

    • BobinOz July 25, 2013, 11:54 pm |

      Not really, you would need your parent or guardian to help you, at 16 you can’t go anywhere without their permission.

  • Warwick July 23, 2013, 10:16 pm |

    Thanks Bob,
    I looked at your pictures and looked at Wellington point on Google earth.
    I think that you might be right; it might be Wellington Point that I remember.

    The place I remember felt like it was a separate village of comfortable houses (not grand like Hamilton on the Brisbane River) and green trees and gardens on the red soil.

    Does Wellington Point have red soil, leafy gardens and Poinciana trees?

    Cheers,
    Warwick

    • BobinOz July 24, 2013, 6:03 pm |

      I wouldn’t know a Poinciana tree if one punched me in the face. That said, I have just googled them to see images and they are very distinctive, aren’t they

      There definitely are trees at Wellington Point, but they were green when I saw them, maybe Poinciana’s only flower at a certain time? The place you are describing does sound like Wellington, although it has dark sand more than red soil and you can walk out quite a way when the sea level allows. There’s plenty of greenery around though, it sort of goes round in a big circle.

      If it’s not Wellington Point, maybe it’s Redland Bay, lots of trees down there, all at an angle because of the wind. Does that help?

      Cheers

      Bob

      • warwick July 24, 2013, 9:00 pm |

        Hi Bob,
        yes that does help. The Poinciana trees do only flower at a certain time of the year.

        You can see a great concentration of them at Woodford, up past Caboolture, where they have the music festival. But once you know what to look for you will see them everywhere.

        Down here in Sydney we’ve had a few cold days; I believe it has still been very agreeable in Brisbane.

        Cheers,
        Warwick

        • BobinOz July 25, 2013, 11:57 pm |

          Yes, it was a beauty here today, I didn’t check the mercury, but I suspect 21° C maybe a bit more. That’s my kind of winter 🙂

  • Warwick July 23, 2013, 3:43 pm |

    Bob,
    I liked your photographs best.
    The path looks inviting; who knows where it might lead? Some place where you can relax with the kids.

    By the way, have you ever been to Cleveland Point?
    I have a memory of it from my childhood – a place with red soil, gardens and poinciana trees

    Do you think I might be confusing it with Victoria Point, also in Redland Bay?

    I appreciate all the information and photographs you provide,
    cheers,
    Warwick

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