when to travel the outback

Australia is a big country, a continent in fact. At one end are the tropics and at the other the roaring forties, and it has a correspondingly wide range of climates. Don't be fooled by the glossy travel brochures. The far north of Australia is under the influence of monsoonal troughs from November until April, the weather is hot and humid with lots of rain. This is great if you want to see the waterfalls of the wet dry tropics in full flood, and the savannah green, however it is HOT and oppressive, and lots of the 4X4 tracks are impassable. At this time of year there is cyclonic activity, and once they cross the coast they can dump literally meters of rain on the northern deserts, making vast tracts of the inland impassable.

At this time the beaches of Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, Southern New South Wales and Southern Western Australia are magnificent, but the big international tourism investment is in the north of the continent, so their advertising drives international visitors to the wet north. Take a careful look at the Australian climate before planning your holiday.

Travelling in the Outback between November and March you will experience extreme heat. The Simpson Desert is closed to the public then. Diamantina chooses to visit the Outback during the cooler months, when temperatures are ideal. The ideal time for desert travel is between April and September, and it is not only because of the temperature, but also the flies!

Flies
Flies can produce seven generations in one year. If you assume that a fly lays 120 eggs per generation and half of these develop into females, a single female fly can give rise to over five million million flies within a year. The most annoying flies are protien deficient females that are persistant in trying to extract protien from your eyes, mouth and ears. A fly net is handy and they mostly sleep at nights, except when it is very hot and there is a bright moon. The good news is their numbers drop dramatically in winter, and frosts kill them off. They are also only active when the temperature is above 16 degrees, and in winter there is hardly a fly at all.

So the best time to visit Australia will depend on where you are going and what you intend to accomplish, and if we could offer one word of advice – don’t try to do it all, the place is so big and so diverse you could spend a lifetime travelling and still see new places. If you are here for several months then you can plan to catch the best weather everywhere. Australia has six distinct climatic regions click here to see a map of those climate zones.

Lightning Strike Density in Australia
Average Thunderstorm Days/Year

The lightning safety institute has more information on lightning in Australia