When to visit Australia, region by region

By Julia · weather-au.com editorial team · Published 23 October 2026 · 5 min read

Australia's cities run from about 12 °S, in Darwin, to 43 °S, in Hobart, so "the best time to visit" has no single answer. It depends on which Australia you mean, and for most of the country the answer is the opposite of what a northern reader assumes: the south is best in its summer and autumn, the north in its winter. This article takes five trips and reads the monthly normals for each. The normals are the site's own, 1991–2020, from the ERA5 reanalysis, and the judgement of what counts as "best" is ours.

Seasons are reversed from Europe or North America: summer is December to February, autumn March to May, winter June to August, spring September to November.

Trip one: the tropical north, in the dry season

Darwin and Cairns have two seasons, not four. The normals for Darwin are brutal in the wet: 436 mm in January, 383 mm in February, 289 mm in March, 27.6 rain days in January. Then the switch. In June and July Darwin gets 2 mm of rain, with a maximum of about 30 °C and nights at 20 °C. May to September is the window: Darwin's maximum stays between 30 °C and 32 °C and the rain is under 20 mm a month (2 mm in June, July and August, 14 mm in May, 16 mm in September).

Cairns is gentler and a month later: 247 mm in January, 263 mm in February, 218 mm in March, 97 mm in April, then 44 mm in May and 28 mm in June. From June to October Cairns has maxima from 23 °C to 27 °C and between 16 and 36 mm of rain a month. Go from June to September.

Avoid November to April in both for anything involving the outdoors. The wet season is also the cyclone season, 1 November to 30 April; see our guide to cyclones and the wet season. October and November in Darwin, the build-up, are hot (maximum 33 °C and 32 °C) and humid before the rain arrives, with minimums of 25 °C and 26 °C.

Trip two: the red centre, in winter and shoulder months

Alice Springs lives at the other extreme. In January the normal maximum is 36 °C, in July 20 °C, but the nights are the surprise: a minimum of 6 °C in July, 6.5 °C in June. Rain is scarce all year (232 mm), and falls mostly from December to February (36 to 42 mm a month).

The comfortable months are April to September: maxima from 29 °C in April, to 19 or 20 °C in June and July, back to 28 °C in September, with 4 to 17 mm of rain a month. May to August is for people who want cold nights and cloudless days; April and September are warmer and still dry. Pack a fleece for the nights.

Trip three: the temperate east and south

Sydney's maxima move only between 16 °C (July) and 25 °C (January), so a visit works in any month; what changes is the rain. February is the wettest month (104 mm) and July the driest (49 mm). Spring (September to November) and early autumn (March to April) combine maxima of 19 to 23 °C with 52 to 92 mm of rain a month. Melbourne has the sharper year: 26 °C in January, 13 °C in July. Its driest month is March (35 mm, maximum 23.5 °C), and March is our pick, followed by February (26 °C, 44 mm). For the changeability, see Melbourne's four seasons in a day.

Hobart is the cool end of the country. The January maximum is 20 °C, the July maximum 11 °C, and the minimum in July is 5 °C. Rain is flat across the year, between 46 and 62 mm a month. The warm months, December to March, are the visit season.

Trip four: the west

Perth runs a Mediterranean calendar. January and February are hot and nearly rainless (maximum 30 °C, 15 to 16 mm), the winter is wet (99 mm in June, 103 mm in July, 90 mm in August) and mild (maximum 17 to 18 °C). Spring and autumn are the best months: September to November (18 to 25 °C, 56 to 19 mm) and April to May (25 °C to 21 °C, 25 and 69 mm). Summer is sunny and has the most hot days: see the ten-year heat count.

Trip five: the Queensland coast south of the tropics

Brisbane is wet in summer (126 mm in January, 125 mm in February, 86 mm in March) and almost dry in winter: 29 mm in July, 36 mm in August, 35 mm in September, with maxima of 20 to 24 °C. June to September is the pleasant window. Summer is hot and humid, with a maximum of 29 °C.

A one-page summary

1. December to February: Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth (very dry). Avoid the north and the centre.
2. March to May: Melbourne (March), Perth (April), Sydney, Alice Springs from April, Darwin from May.
3. June to August: Darwin, Cairns, Alice Springs (cold nights), Brisbane. Perth and the south are cold and wet.
4. September to November: Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide, Alice Springs in September; Darwin is in its build-up.

What the normals cannot tell you

• They are averages over thirty years. The ten-year archive shows how far a year can stray: see ten years of Australian weather.
• They say nothing about crowds, school holidays or prices.
• They come from a reanalysis grid of about 25 km. In mountains or on the coast they can differ from the weather in a given valley or on a given beach.

Check the 14-day forecast for the city page of your trip before you book anything that cannot move.

Period of the data cited: 1991–2020.