Brisbane Travel Forum

Hello everybody! I´m a German student having the possibility to work at Queensland University next year. I just have to choose which part of the year? Do you think it´s nicer to visit Australia from January till June or from July till December? I think about travelling a bit along the east coast, learning surfing and want to play safe that I choose the best time of the year to do that (with a lot of sunny days). :-)

Thanks in advance! Ina

July to December.
Jan/Feb/March are the worst months of the year for heat and humidity. Traditionally it is the wet season especially for northern areas. Near record amounts rain has fallen & continues to fall in central and northern Queensland during the last couple of months.

I agree...the first three months of the year are very unpredictable. Hot/humid and wet... Major floods in Central Qld right now and cyclones are always a threat.

June/July/August is winter but in Qld our winters are very mild, hopefully sunny and much easier to cope with. It will start to heat up around Oct and Nov and Dec will be hot.

Can only agree with the others. January and February along the east coast is hot, very humid, often rainy and quite miserable for anyone not used to it.
leyle

I agree too, and July - December takes you through spring, which I think is a great time.

Lou, I've been reading about the floods in Mackay, state of emergency and all that - are you OK?

If nothing else, I would always rather start cool and get warmer - hence, my choice would be for July to December. Everyone else makes very good points too!

Hi Colin...yes I am one of the lucky ones...but for thousands it is another story. Still can't get my mind around it all.

It is still raining which is making the cleanup that much harder. I feel so sorry for those who lost everything because many don't have flood insurance. Apparently it is difficult to get flood insurance and most companies don't offer it.

We all feel so much for you. Good to hear that you're OK but our hearts go out to those who are not. Time for those who can to let the moths out of those closed up wallets.

Those are my sentiments too.

July - Dec will be colder for most of it so not so good for swimming. But Jan/Feb is awfully hot though in 2008 it has been ok.

Just a quick update on the recent floods...

About 9500 insurance claims have been processed and the damage bill is estimated at around $128 million. The good news is that insurance companies have come good with the claims.

Flood coverage is hard to get and we thought that many would be left destitute but this disaster has been classified as a flash flood. The difference is, that a FLOOD is when a river, lake or watercourse overflows. A FLASH FLOOD is when rain water cannot get away. Some people didn't live anywhere near a river and were still up to their waists in water.

The clean up goes on and now the sun is shining. It was such a beautiful day today you couldn't imagine the horror of last Friday.

They are saying, though it hasn't yet been confirmed by the weather bureau that this flood was the biggest and worst in Australian history.

Good to hear the insurers are paying up Lou - all too often they find ways not to.

Yes, good to hear that reason prevails sometimes.