I’m an Australian. That’s so unusual to say. Still. I am.
I am what you call a new Australian.
I MADE Australia my home. And this home is a unique place in this world.
So, being here, living here, what makes Australia, Australia, what is “The Spirit of Australia”.
Let’s find this out together in this mini-series. What’s the “Spirit of Australia” for me, in my context?
Wherever you live in Australia
Whatever time of the year you visit Australia,
there is one crazy thing going on. THE WEATHER.
The weather is unique to this unique continent.
Most of the Country is just dry.
HOT
BURNING HOT
When the sun shines during Sommer, you feel it.
And you can spot innocent tourists by their RED sunburned skin.
Australians are SunSmart.
HAT, SUNSCREEN, and UV clothing.
That’s how you gear up if you plan to stay in the sun.
No sunbathing. No browning or tanning.
You are staying safe. The statistic of Australians getting skin cancer is among the highest in the world.
But if you live in Melbourne, no matter how hot it is today, do not store away your winter clothes because you will need them tomorrow when the temperature falls back from 37 to 16 degrees. This often happens here in the south when a cold, Southpole blast comes from the south sea and brings along rain and winds.
The winter in victoria is cold and wet.
We even have snow, something most people don’t know about Australia. I did not, and I know many Europeans do not know this. The general knowledge is that Australia is warm and a tropical paradise.
What Else did I experience in my time here:
- Strong winds with trees falling, branches breaking, one fell on my car once,
- Hail storm
- extreme temperature changes
- flash-flooding, I experienced this in my neighbourhood.
- Super, asphalt melting, hot burning summer weather with upwards of 45 C.
- Bushfires due to this hot weather
- muddy rain
That’s what I experience from the weather spirit of Australia.
But the Country is big. It is a continent the size of Europe.
So the weather varies a lot from region to region.
It is:
hot
very hot
hot humid
hot very humid
regions with cyclones,
flashfloods
drought
and the desert.
That’s the Spirit.
Like in every Country
the weather plays a big part a
and has a significant on how people
animals
plants
life as well as culture in general.
That’s why the weather is on my list of things that make the “Spirit of Australia”.
Enjoy and marvel at it because it is unique.
It is uniquely Australian.
Peter Demuth 