RonyMcD

Hello Folks

My wife is an accountant & we are in the process of trying to immigrate to Australia under a state sponsorship.

Tasmania have offered her a 491 Visa. This is exciting but we have worries.

The main reason to move is a warmer climate, having spent 2 years in Australia in 2009-11 and loving the sun. So naturally moving to Tasmania feels like we won’t have that warmer climate, as it’s much like the UK weather.

Can anyone offer us advice please.

Regards

Ronan

Paul Hand

‘My advice would be … spend the required time in Tasmania and then you can move north if that is what you still want.

Moses2013

Good point and might turn out to be the better choice in the long run. Although from 2013 might give an idea. It will still be sunnier than the sunniest parts of the UK and there's only so much sun and heat a body can take. Just look at the skin cancer rates and it's not getting better either. Remoteness might be the bigger challenge if used to London.

City: Hobarthttps://thenewdaily.com.au/weather/2013/11/21/australian-weather-myths-tested-city-fare/
Cliché: It’s always cold and wet
True or false: Half true. It’s often cold, but it’s very dry

When you think of Tasmania’s capital, images of grey skies and chilly days predominate. But while the low temperatures might be true, the science tells us that Hobart is actually Australia’s second driest capital.

BOM Tasmania climatologist Ian Barnes-Keoghan said Hobart wasn’t as wet as people thought. It rained often, but only lightly.

“So if you ask people did it rain, they’ll say, yes I got wet, but the amount of rain that fell was minimal.”

He said Hobart was also susceptible to the same kind of variable weather that Melbourne gets.

“In some ways the four seasons in one day thing applies almost as much to Hobart, particularly in spring and summer,” Barnes-Keoghan said.

The driving force in Hobart’s weather is the wind. Unlike the mainland, Tasmania gets to experience the full brunt of the roaring 40s westerly winds which are strong and damaging over spring.

Those winds bring rain, volatility and the capital’s most extreme weather danger – coupled with hot weather, the wind creates a serious bushfire risk.

During winter, Tassie also gets the super-cold fronts straight from Antarctica, but deep frost and snow is rare due to the changing weather, thanks to the sea, and yep, the winds.

Pollyana

Tassie's weather is fascinating. I've experienced snow down to sea level in Hobart, winds that come straight from the Antarctic and gut right through you - more so than the coldest winds back home in the UK. But I've also experienced days of temps in the 38-40 degree range. Dealing with heat like that in Tassie is similar to the UK - many houses just aren't equipped to deal with it. Air conditioning is less common than in the rest of Australia, for instance. More days of of UK-style drizzle too.
Tassie's sun is more intense than the rest of Aus - sunglasses essential when the sun is out; and sunscreen is needed even on cloudy days - it the only place I have got sunburnt without the sun showing its face all day.
Beautiful island - but be prepared for all extremes of weather!

Moses2013

You haven't been to Ireland then. I usually don't get sunburnt that quick and the whole week it was around 20-22c but we were mainly near urban areas and the one day we were on the beach very far out West it was a whopping 17c (cloudy) and got sunburnt even using sunscreen. The theory is that sunlight is blocked by air pollution (dust, ash etc.) so the cleaner the air the quicker you burn. I would assume that Tasmania is very similar and the air quality is better than mainland. Wind is another good point and many people from London don't know what wind is until they end up somewhere like Wellington NZ ,parts of Tasmania or somewhere in the West.

Moses2013

Here another interesting article that confirms your experience with wind.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-10-...ring/100483838

RonyMcD

Thanks folks for the info & advice

Is a good move do you think?

I grew up in Ireland in the country so London has grated on me since Brexit, Covid & now the price of living.

Moses2013

I can't comment on Tasmania, if your main goal is to settle in Australia and the package offered is great then it might be a way to get in. If it's just about weather there are probably cheaper warmer places close by, but at the end of the day it's down to each individual. I've come to the conclusion that there is no need to go far away and came to Ireland at a good time, so probably the wrong person to give advice. Compared to England I can enjoy remotness here without being too remote and if I want a Bondi Beach feel, I can drive to Spain and know I'm never far from family. If your dream is Australia and it's the only way to get there, then nothing wrong taking the opportunity.

Pollyana

The main issue with moving to Tassie is availability of work. If you can get work, then its an excellent way into Australia. Moving to Tassie without a job is risky, as its such a small island with limited opportunities, but if can get over that hurdle, its a beautiful place to live.

paddy234

If your coming from Ireland like myself then Tasmania will be significantly sunnier and much warmer. Tasmania in terms of climate is similar to Christchurch in New Zealand where I used to live. To put things into perspective sunshine hours in Hobart is 2400 hours per year. In Dublin it's merely 1450 hours. London would feel a good bit sunnier than Dublin yet it's still only 1650 hours per year which is only a bit more than Ireland's average so 1000 hours difference as you can imagine is a significant difference. In terms of temperatures Hobart on average is 3-4°C warmer than Dublin. Essentially it's a warmer sunnier climate however by Australian standards it's cold and quite gloomy lol.

It really depends what sort of climate you like as it was one of the main factors when we were choosing where we wanted to live. The Climate largely dictates your lifestyle especially if you love the outdoors and like me work outdoors aswell. Hobart is like central to South-West France. Melbourne has a similar climate to Porto in Portugal. Adelaide has a very similar climate to Majorca and Ibiza. Sydney has a fairly similar climate to Buenos Aires in Argentina. Perth has a very similar climate to Los Angeles or Safi in Morocco. Brisbane has a very similar climate to Tampa in Florida and Darwin is the tropics. Only a wet and dry season up there.

Moses2013

But as always this is just Google data and even within the places you will find various differences. If you really look at data, the 1650 you have taken for London is based on the data from Heathrow station but if you look to Greenwich station it's only 1409.95 hours between 1981-2010 and between 1991-2020 1526.41 hours. It's the same with Dublin and the historic data is only from the airport but with the newer stations and climate change it's now closer to 1600 in other parts of the coast as the newer stations never recorded sunshine data. It's no different with Hobart and those who only focus on Google data might expect the Med. In reality you can see the data here: Climate statistics for Australian locations

Many are then surprised that the sunshine was not what they expected oh and the wind, nobody mentioned the wind (especially winter).

Pollyana

OMG that Tassie wind, straight from Antarctica, cuts right to the bone!

paddy234

It's not JUST google data. All climate data in Australia is collected by Bom in which google and in particular Wikipedia picks up. The same as the Met office in the UK. Also 1650 isn't Heathrow, it's a rough average of London as both Heathrow AND Kew gardens report higher than this. Kew gardens is just under 1700 hours. I don't doubt there is some variation of data around different stations of a particular area by one hundred hours or so which is why i gave an average but my point was that there is quite a big difference in just a few hundred hours of sunshine. Compare Belfast to London and it's evident to see. Similar with Christchurch to Nelson or Adelaide to Perth. Sunshine hours in London in summer is similar to the likes of Christchurch so at least the South of England gets half decent summers compared to the rest of the UK and most of Ireland. Here is Hobart's data https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart As you can see it stretches right up until 2020 so is essentially what it's climate is like today. You are somehow implying goggle's data is somehow made up but it's not, it's data literally comes from the local weather stations. In the UK, it's the Met service, in NZ it's the NIWA, in OZ it's Bom.

Hobart get's an average of 2400 hours of sunshine. The link you put up showing Hobart get's 2200 hours of sunshine per year is outdated as it only goes to 1995, here is more recent data from another station. Climate statistics for Australian locations That blows away Ireland/UK as the sunniest areas of the UK only reaches around 1900 hours. In terms of Sunshine, Hobart is similar to Southern Europe so will feel like a MUCH sunnier climate however temperature wise it only a few degrees warmer so it is still a temperate oceanic climate (cfb), there is no-one who could claim Hobart is a Mediterranean climate (Csa), certainly not on google. Also believe it or not Mediterranean climates also get cold in winter, even here in Perth we got blasted quite a few days even this spring with cold wind and we have a climate similar to Morocco. Adelaide is known for it's cold southerly in winter yet has an almost identical climate to Majorca/Ibiza. How many Irish and Brits go to the Med in winter so how would we know what it's like? We usually only go in summer, late spring or early Autumn

To the Op, i do feel you'll notice a significant difference between Ireland and Hobart in terms of it's climate similar to my experience going from Ireland to Christchurch and sunshine is the biggest reason aswell as fewer rainy days.

paddy234

As it does here in Perth

old.sparkles

Polly has lived in Tassy - and visited many times since leaving.

I'd trust her judgement.