Michael Gorey

Winters in Kalgoorlie are short and not very cold, but temperature is a relative thing. It does get down to zero in Kalgoorlie but it’s a dry crisp cold and days starting that way tend to warm up nicely.

I only encountered a handful of days when the wind was strong enough and chilly enough to make indoors more attractive than being outside.

Moving back to south-eastern Australia we’ve experienced a very mild start to winter, but there have been a few hints of what’s to come.

Stopping near Ballarat for lunch I wanted to close the door to keep the cold out; haven’t done that for three years.

Mount Gambier and Moe, where I’ve been staying, both have foggy mornings. The mist doesn’t lift until 10am or thereabouts; meanwhile the overnight chill hangs in the air.

I remember foggy mornings at Traralgon when I rode my bike to high school. The moisture from the fog sometimes turned to ice on my school jumper while cycling and I arrived at school looking like a snowman.

I wore gloves though and the frost quickly melted, so that doesn’t qualify as one of my coldest experiences.

Nor does skiing, visiting the snow or travelling around Europe in December. While doing those things I was dressed for the conditions and every building was properly heated.

Cold (and heat) hits you when you’re unprepared or it’s unexpected. The coldest I have ever been:

1) Riding my bike in the freezing rain, aged about 13. I used to go for long bike trips, about 50km from Traralgon to neighboring towns and places.

One day, obviously in winter, coming back from Rosedale the weather changed. A cold front came in from the south-west delivering icy rain and a freezing headwind. I wasn’t appropriately dressed and didn’t have gloves.

After trying to shelter beneath a tree until the rain stopped I got back on the highway until an elderly couple took pity on me and drove me home.

2) Aged 20 and working as a cadet journalist at the Bairnsdale Advertiser, I visited friends at Benambra in the high country,

Benambra is a farming town on the edge of the alps, about 1000 metres abive sea level. It’s probably the highest non-skiing community in Victoria.

My friends (two brothers) lived in a rambling old farm house while their parents sensibly lived in a modern warmer home nearby.

It got to minus eight degrees that night. The wood fire went out and only heated one room anyway. I think I was in a sleeping bag that just wasn’t good enough for the job.

3) Not as extreme, but worth relating. Our first winter at Porepunkah in 1997 was the coldest we experienced there. Again, the house wasn’t properly insulated or heated.

There must have been 50 or more frosts that year and we didn’t have a carport. Nearly every winter morning I had to remove ice from the car before driving to work in Myrtleford. One night, ice formed before 10pm when we had to take Michael into hospital with an asthma condition.

The worst night was when condensation froze on the walls inside the house. The glass of water I kept beside my bed also iced over.

I know Australia doesn’t get cold compared with many other places in the world. It doesn’t snow at sea level, except occasionally in Victoria and Tasmania. But it can get pretty chilly and often we’re not prepared.

These articles might be of interest:

• Winter’s last hurrah?
• No sign of winter
• Weather jinx