Australia ‘should be using Aboriginal seasons instead of colonial ones’

The Australian seasons are inaccurate remnants of colonialism and should be replaced by Aboriginal seasons, politically correct agitators argue.

Melburnians complained online that they were still shivering from the near-freezing weather, despite it being spring days, with 2.4C recorded.

Some Australians pointed out that the country one of the few countries in the world that changes seasons on the same date every year.

Other countries use solstice dates that shift slightly each year and actually match the timing of the seasons.

Reddit users said the meteorological system was “random for convenience,” while astronomical timing — which determines the start of a new season based on solstices and equinoxes — worked for Europe and the United States.

“Many countries don’t divide seasons by calendar months like we do, they divide them by the equinoxes and solstices. That makes a lot of sense,” one user wrote.

“The reason people always complain about Melbourne’s weather is because they measure it against the standards of the traditional European seasons from the other side of the world,” wrote another user.

Others argued that Australia should adopt an indigenous weather calendar, guided by the environment in a specific part of the country.

“The Wurundjeri people tracked seasons based on actual observation of conditions, rather than trying to divide the weather into categories applicable to Western Europe,” one wrote.

“A lot of indigenous groups had six seasons – it seems they make a lot more sense for our climate and I wish we could use them instead,” added another.

“I grew up in the bush and the indigenous people lived and knew the local seasons,” wrote a third.

This discussion has been bubbling for some time now. Two years ago, left-wing academic Hayden Moon claimed that the seasons were nothing more than “colonial labels.”

“On the first day of ‘Spring’… allow me to remind you that the four seasons are colonial labels that don’t really correlate with the weather in so-called ‘Australia,’” he wrote.

Seán Holyoake, a social worker in Western Australia, demanded that Perth residents stop saying it was spring.

“You are halfway through the Djilba season. Noongar Country has six seasons. You are not in Europe, you are on Aboriginal land, therefore the Aboriginal seasons apply,” he wrote.

The Bureau of Meteorology lists 17 seasonal calendars across the country based on traditional First Nations weather knowledge for the region.

For thousands of years, Aboriginal people have measured the seasons guided by land and ecological factors, with a number of seasons ranging from two to six.

The Gariwerd Calendar, which covers the Grampians and Gariwerd region of Victoria. lists six seasons with Petyan—the wildflower season—beginning toward the end of September.

Petyan is characterized by stormy weather, warmer days and the bush coming to life.

Stretching from the southern shores of Sydney Harbor to the Shoalhaven River in NSW, the D’harawal calendar also observes six distinct seasons.

According to the calendar, the region is in Ngoonungi’s time. A period from September to October characterized as cool but warmer.

While the months of November and December are hot and wet during the Parra’dowee season.