seany34

We are hopefully going to go to Queensland, Brisbane and surrounding area's. Whilst we choose to emigrate for a better lifestyle we would also consider the climate as well. When looking at the weather for brsibane it seems reasonable in the winter (our summer) time. But when we search for somewhere to live there is a big difference in the property.

In some parts of Queensland a house is raised due to floods, another will say has air conditiong! Then Another house will say has Gas Central Heating??? The later i'm wondering why i will need it? Most people i have spoken to say they never need a jumper so why would you want heating?

Am i going mad. Maybe. Any help on this would be apprecaited. I know Oz has a varied climate and indeed does get snow on the mountains but i didn't think it got that cold in Queensland. Where is the best climate all round?

r.bartlett

temperature is all relative

i can remember sitting in a bar in the dom .rep. thinking 'bloody ell i'm freezing'-

i looked at the wall thermometer and it read 27 deg'c !!

my mate went to arizona to stay with some friends
sitting in the pool up to his neck and still sweating because of the relentless heat .

his host got up off her chair and said " I'm just popping in to get a jumper as it's a bit nippy"

the houses in queensland were probably advertising 'reverse cycle' air conditioning which is another way of saying 'heat pump'

personaly i would worry about the humidity around that area as that is the real energy zapper not temperature.


i like the adelaide climate as it's much drier and overall warmer than the uk but even there the winter nights can get cold too..

cheers

richard

Kiwipaul

Richard is right, if you were brought up in Queensland you might find it cold here in winter, but comming from the UK, no problem. And yes some airconditioners have a heating function as well and they only cost about $100 more than pure cooling units.

I don't think I've ever seen a house advertised with cental heating anywhere in Brisbane or on the coast in QLD, inland it can get a bit cooler. Anyone who wants central heating in Brisbane would be the type of person who wants Airconditioning in their home in England, because of the hot summers you get .

As for flooding it's no more prevelent than in England, cos when it rains hard you get floding their as well.

Theirs nowhere with an ideal climate year round but Brisbane comes pretty come IMO.

jayr

If you use central heating in the UK you will QLD winter nights cold. In UK we would have our heating set at 18-20C throughout the winter for comfort. As nights here fall into the low teens or lower you will therefore feel cold at night without any heating. Reverse cycle air conditioning is probably a good idea but I'd be suprised to find any central heating in QLD, not least due to the lack of domestic gas supply.

Kiwipaul

I agree night time outside temp fall to the low teens during winter, but I don't sleep outside, I sleep in a house that has been sitting in the sun at a temp of 20C plus all day, and at night it gradually cools down, and for a totally un insulated house it is still always more than 5C warmer than outside.

This dosn't happen in the UK, as the day temp can be as cold as the night temp and so the body of the house gets no chance to warm up during the day. Well thats my theory and it work at my place.

Don't know where you live in Brisbane but I have domestic gas going past my house. A lot of people use it for hot water heating.

Ceri

Yes, it does get cold here in Brisbane (in winter) like Jayr has said.

I'm on the coast. The daytime temp on average I would say is a pleasant 22c/24c - less when raining (about 18/19c). But in the night, very early mornings it can go down to 7c (hasn't happened yet this year - but it's still only early winter) . This is usually around 3 am in the morning that it gets the coldest.

Places inland a bit ,like Ipswich get even colder in the night/early morning , I've seen it drop to minus on the forecast some nights/mid winter in Ipswich.

Currently at the moment (in the night) I have a fan heater on. It hasn't been too bad this year - but it's only May. Coldest months I find are July and August. And I do wear big coats and jumpers in the night. If I'm out by or on the water night fishing - I have a wool hat on, coat, couple of jumpers and have been known to wear two pairs of trousers to keep warm. In the day you don't need this. day wear depends - I also wear light jumpers/coats in the day, got one on now - as this morning it has been "miserable" damp and overcast

Anyway, inland places get colder (and warmer in summer) than they do on the coast , and can drop down to minus something some nights. The coast is warmer than inland during the winter, but it still does get cold here during the night/very early hours of the morning.

Central heating, or fires etc - I don't see many houses with this around Brisbane, most people just use fan heaters and dress up warm in the nights - some inland people/places do have fires and such.

Air-conditioning - essential for some people for the summer. As it does get very Humid here some summers. I have just a window aircon in the bedroom, as long as the bedroom is cool I don't care, it's for a decent nights sleep. It depends on the person - but the humid weather does not bother me that much - I've lived in a far more humid country than this - and an aircon in the bedroom was all that I needed there too.

Floods - not quite sure where that is - maybe North a bit (I'm in Brisbane North area - Redcliffe region) - perhaps it's low lying land - I don't know.

Cheers
P.S no gas here with me either, I've never lived in a house with gas in the Brisbane area - but saying that there's a new estate going up near me and they have gas going into the estate. New home I'm building (no gas either) I'm having bottled gas just for the stove stop - prefer it to electric for cooking

jayr

Most warm blooded mammals will find Brisbane winter nights cold without additional heating. Domestic gas penetration in the Brisbane area is virtually non-existent relative to the UK.

jah4reds

I've lived in both modern concrete houses and older wooden houses. And the experience is dramatically different in both.

If you live a concrete house - you shouldn't find winters here a big ordeal. If the sun has shone during the day the roof and walls will have sufficiently warmed up to retain most of their heat during the night. However, by 6am after a cloudless night the house will still feel pretty chilly though. However, in the summers you'd better install an air-con, wopping big ceiling fans or you'll *cook* during the day.

If you live in wooden house - especially those that are elevated of the ground - summers (for all but the exceptionally hot days) will feel really balmy. A lot of wooden houses are not insulated - so the house cools down rapidly at night so that evenings are great. But in winter this type of house can get blinkin cold - especially if the are gaps in the floorboard. I can even look directly down at my driveway from my own living room! Bring your winter clothes if you intend to live in a wooden house. When we moved from our concrete hot-house to this wooden house ice-box , my wife and often joked that we had also moved country and climate (admitedly it's been a cooler summer and autumn this year as well).

I think there are centrally heated houses further south like Melbourne - I would doubt it in Brisbane.

We also have piped gas running down our street.

AndyH

dotty

Areas like Stanthorpe/Toowomba in the South West get really cold weather down to minus on some nights in Winter. Family there certainly have heating but it is usually big wood burining heaters, many houses there do have ducted heating, (reverse cycle aircondit).

Look at the size of the state, weather varies enormously because of this.

Houses do not have much insulation here so heat/cold are felt much more.

Summers vary enormously, last summer I rarely felt hot, we used our airconditioner about 50 times. The summer before it was hell we had it on for 8 months solid. Every person I know Aussies included were moaning about the staggering heat. Yet last summer it was quite nice. Humidity is a big factor in QLD, 30 may sound nice in a dry climate, 30 here can seem far hotter due to the claggy, wet air.

Don

Floods are v common in the Central/ Northern parts of QLD and the traditional Queenslander is set on stilts to stop the house getting wet. I was last in QLD in Nov-Feb and quite a few times the roads were flooded out and impassable for several hours (days once).

That's what you get in tropical rainforest territory.

Cheers - Don

jah4reds

There are many theories why traditional Queenslander houses are up on stumps/stilts - avoiding floods is just one of them.

The most common theory is usually to increase the airflow under the floorboards to cool the house down in summer (works too well in winter too!).

http://www.anu.edu.au/ANDC/Austwords/queenslander.html

Personally the one I like and the one that causes the most amusement to other pepople living in NSW, Victoria, etc - is the one about building the house up high to avoid mosquitos!

http://cwpp.slq.qld.gov.au/cominos/history2.htm

The mosquitos that hang around our house have obviously figured how to fly higher than 3 metres of the ground.

AndyH

kaleb777

Something you should remember is the fact that Brisbane metro is very spread out so the weather is not uniform accross the whole conurbation. It can be 30C in Brisbane but 37C or more in the western suburbs in summer, but in winter at night it can get down close to zero in the western subs while Brisbane east is 11 or 12C. Winter days in Brisbane rarely drop below 20C and it is always dry and sunny in winter. Summer is the rainy period in Brisbane, so it's hot and humid. You will definately need an air conditioner if you work nights. You can pick one up for the bedroom for around $400 and shove it in the window.

I live in the western suburbs and have air conditioning for summer and a wood heater for winter nights, although I did have the fire going the other day when it was 19C. BEcause Brisbane is on the side of a continent, you will get huge temperature differences between day and night. In autumn I've seen daytime temps here at 29C and nght temps dropping to 5C. Most houses are elevated because it allows the air to flow underneath and cool the house, not because of flooding. Flooding does occur but it isn't any worse than anywhere else. The last big flood was in 74.