When is Spring in Australia? (State-by-State Details)

Spring in Australia starts at the beginning of September and finishes on the last day of November. Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, which means the seasons are at the opposite time of the year to the Northern Hemisphere.

One of the most famous things about Australia in spring is the jacaranda trees, which burst skylines of purple across many of the country’s major cities.

Related: Summer in Australia | Autumn in Australia | Winter in Australia | Things Australia is Known For

What Does Spring Feel Like in Australia?

Australia is vast with many different climates, so spring feels very different depending on where you are in the country.

Up north in Darwin, it is very tropical, and isn’t strictly considered to have a spring, with it instead being spilt into wet and dry seasons. The ‘spring’ months of September to November fall at the very start of the west season, with September having only two days of rain, but that ramping up to fifteen days of rain in November. The temperature is relatively stable throughout, with highs of 33°C (92°F) and lows of 25°C (77°F).

Out east in Brisbane, average temperatures are between 15-25°C (59-77°F), with the rainfall growing in November up to around nine days.

In Melbourne, it is very different to the north and east, with the rainfall dropping through spring from around 10 days in September down to seven days in November. The temperatures start to rise, but the averages of 10-20°C (49-67°F), don’t tell the whole store, as September often sees average highs of only 16°C with November stretching as high as 22°C some years.

As ever, in the far south in Hobart, the weather lags behind. The temperatures are lower than the rest of the country at an average of 8-17°C (46-62°F), and, unlike the rest of the country who see peaks in winter or summer, it is also the time of year with the highest average rainfall, with Hobart hitting over ten days of rain a month in September and October.

On the West Coast in Perth, spring is sunny and warm, with average temperatures ranging from 12-23°C (53-73°F). The wet winter comes to an end, with rainfall dropping from around eight days in September to three days in November.

On the appropriately named Alice Springs, the weather is warm, between 14- 31°C (57-87°F). Alice Springs is generally dry most of the year, but November is the month with the third-highest rainfall at around four days.

Do Indigenous Calendars Have a Spring Season?

The broad answer is yes, however with over 250 different mobs (tribes) of aboriginal people across Australia, and very different climates, the seasons don’t line up exactly with western perceptions.

For example, for the Nyoongar people of WA, spring straddles two seasons, Djilba (or first spring) which is known as the season of conception, and Kambarang (or second spring) which is known as the season of birth.

This splitting of the seasons make far more sense, with Djilba falling across August and September, which are the last of the wet months and feed the crops, and Kambarang, which is in October and November, the season of birth, when the flowers and crops burst into life.

With rainfall dropping from 60mm in September to 18mm in November and temperatures rising from 19°C to 25°C, you can see why these have been classed as two separate seasons in the local indigenous calendar.

For the Wurundjeri people of Melbourne (or Naarm), spring is actually much earlier, with ‘early spring’ starting in mid-July, and ‘true spring’ in September and October.

I live in Melbourne, and as I write this it is the 28th July. On our town Facebook group, a snake was spotted at the nearby Jawbone Reserve, and we’ve already started seeing daffodils.

It definitely feels like mid-July is the beginning of spring some years, not September as is thought in the four season calendars of western people.