I wouldn't swap the winter in Sydney for any other area in Australia, you can't beat the crystal clear winter days you get associated with the dominant dry westerlies we get from June - late September.

What is better than being on the harbour with a crystal clear blue sky, temps around 17c - 20c and low humidity

On a clear day we can see the blue mountains as clear as anything from our house and that is a good 25/30 miles away!

Also if you are after some even colder weathe rit is easy to go up the mountains for a weekend

The worst weather in Sydney is February and March, wettest months and most humidy, although not as humid as Brisbane.

Wouldn't swap the climate in Sydney for any other area. Ok the western suburbs can get a bit hot and the souttherly changes can be brutal, espcially in early summer, but can't complain

The driest of the capital cities is apparently Hobart. I didnt believe it myself until last week as every time i have been its rained. This time round though it hasnt really rained for 6 months and the ground is very very dry.

That would be because Hobart is sheltered from the roaring westerlies in the Southern Ocean. The mountains on the west coast of Tassie create a rain shadow and strip the moisture out before it reaches Hobart. The eastern side of Tassie can get VERY dry indeed.

Sir,If Ms Swollocks does inhabit your undergarments may i suggest a diet......Zero carbs should do the trick

And many aren't it would seem!

I noticed years ago that the heat goes off in Melbourne like a switch - it can happen in as early as April, or May...in other capitals, the milder conditions carry on for a bit longer.
There is a period of about 5 months where the temp never sees 20 degrees.

I quite like the onset of winter in Melbourne - wood fire etc...it's only August you have to really get through...I think the winter would seem long if you really HATE winter - for me it's the short winter days that make it drag. I think for most people that the Sydney winter would make up for the summer.

Get it!

Winter seems to drag on and on sometimes though through Sept and into Oct. Pretty sure the last few grand finals that I remember have been played on rainy 12-13C days.

True...my friend - but the temps do start to improve as do the daylight hours.
I find with September comes a bit of a motivation!

What this means is that people have to realise that it can be half the year of less than 20 degrees.....could you do that?
Syd, Perth and Bris all get to 20 ish (or sun) in winter, regularly.

In even the South of the UK there are 9 months of less than 20 degrees.

Melbourne is a significant improvement on that.

BB

Absolutely my friend. There in lies the situation - Melbourne - not as 'warm' as Sydney - but a fair bit warmer than the south (or North) of the UK.

And Melbourne is quite a bit hotter in summer than the UK.

4C warmer than London say the stats!

It's like the stats between Melb and Brisbane!

Common sense and experience tells me it's actually a fair bit 'hotter' (or warmer) in Melb than the south of the UK in summer. Maybe its like comparing St Tropez with Brighton...

When I left the UK, 30 degrees was still a heatwave - even 27 was considered a scorcher. (But they did have that record summer in 2003!)
30 is a typical summer's day in Melbourne. If it wasn't for those cooler days in Melbourne, the changes, the average would be higher - I'm guessing...and where have our changes been recently...we had a few weeks of high 20s...but I haven't seen teens for a while...

Well that 4 degrees feels bloody significant..... I love the warm dry summers here, whereas in London I always had to have a backup plan for everything in case it rained or was too cool to be outside.

BB

If 30 is typical then as you say so must days in the low 20s be...to give that Jan average of just under 26.

Winter
London 2.4/8.5
Melbourne 6/13.5

Summer
London 14.2/23.2
Melbourne 14.6/25.8

So in theory the winters are less cold by 4-5 degrees, but the summers aren't that much hotter. Somehow I think the extremes are the killer though, temps into the 40s in Melbourne are regular, and temps down to -10 are common in London.

Overall, its the climate of the south of France/northern Spain - which sounds OK to me.