First Day Of Spring Australia |verified| Access

While the astronomical equinox (usually around September 22nd or 23rd) marks the moment the sun crosses the celestial equator, Australians have largely ignored this in favour of the meteorological spring. Why wait three extra weeks when the wattles are already blooming and the magpies are already plotting? So, on the first of September, the nation collectively exhales, turns its face to a sun that finally has some warmth in its bones, and declares winter over. Wake up early. The air still carries a ghost of August—that metallic, damp chill that seeps through uninsulated windows of Queenslander homes and Victorian weatherboards alike. But there is a difference. The light has changed. It is sharper, leaning in at a different angle, no longer the low, weak smear of July.

As the sun sets on September 1st—earlier than it will in December, but later than it did in June—the air cools rapidly. The frogs in the pond begin their chorus. And you realise that spring in Australia isn’t a gentle unfolding. It is a rapid, aggressive, fragrant, sneezy, swooping, glorious lunge towards summer. And it has begun. first day of spring australia

It is a very Australian welcome to spring: beauty and menace in equal measure. For the gardener, September 1st is a starting pistol. In the vegetable patch, it’s time to sow the tomatoes, the basil, the zucchinis that will inevitably turn into marrows the size of small children by January. The citrus trees—lemons, limes, the hardy cumquat—are heavy with their last winter fruit and simultaneously bursting into creamy, perfume-heavy blossom. The wattles, Australia’s unofficial floral emblem of spring, have been going since August, their golden pom-poms a shock of colour against a sky that is finally losing its winter grey. Wake up early

In the country towns, it means show season. The agricultural shows begin their circuit: the sideshow alley, the woodchopping, the giant pumpkins, and the showbags. In the cities, it means the silly season of footy finals is about to peak, and the cricket pitches are being rolled for the summer ahead. The light has changed