There are tens of thousands of years of Indigenous weather and climate knowledge about the different pockets of Australia, and the Bureau of Meteorology is helping to make it accessible to all Australians.

 

Australia is a bloody big place. When you think about it, this land stretches so widely, it experiences the tropical heat of the Equator and the icy gusts rushing straight off of Antarctica, all at once.

So to say that Australia only experiences four seasons is to exclude a bunch of weather events and climate knowledge that has been developed and handed down for generations by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Since 2002 the Bureau of Meteorology has been collaborating with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission and Monash University’s Centre for Indigenous Studies to share Indigenous weather knowledge on the national platform – check it out! 

There’s an interactive map that gives detailed info on 17 different Indigenous nations around Australia and the multiple seasons they experience. 

 

 

Take D’harawal Nation for example – there are six different seasons recognised by the local D’harawal people, some which are marked by the sight of flying foxes in the evening sky, or the flowering of Marrai’uo (Acacia floribunda) which is a sign there’s ample fish in the rivers. 

What a valuable and useful resource! Check out what forecast is on the country you walk on. 

Explore The Map

 

Feature photo by @xavierandersonau