Tag:summer
Christmas in Australia is a celebration like no other. While many associate the holiday season with snowflakes, roaring fires, and winter wonderlands, Australians celebrate Christmas during the peak of summer. The unique climate and a vibrant mix of cultural influences create an unforgettable holiday season that combines traditional festivities with a sun-soaked twist.
A Sun-Kissed Christmas
December is one of the warmest months in Australia, with temperatures often reaching well over 30°C (86°F). Instead of snow-covered streets, Australians enjoy sunny days and clear, blue skies. Beaches become popular holiday spots, with families and friends gathering for barbecues, picnics, and water sports. Christmas Day on the beach is an Australian staple. Many spend the holiday playing beach cricket, swimming, or simply relaxing in the sun.
This seasonal difference gives Australian Christmas a unique feel. Santa Claus is just as likely to be spotted wearing board shorts and sunglasses as in a red suit. Santa even arrives on a surfboard or by boat in some coastal towns, a refreshing twist that adds to the relaxed summer vibe.
Christmas Traditions: A Blend of Cultures
Australia is a multicultural nation, which is reflected in how Christmas is celebrated. While the country shares some customs with other Western nations, such as Christmas trees, gift-giving, and carolling, it also includes traditions unique to Australian culture.
- Carols by Candlelight
One of Australia’s most cherished Christmas traditions is “Carols by Candlelight.” This event sees people gathering in parks, beaches, or city squares to sing Christmas carols by candlelight. The tradition dates back to 1938 when Norman Banks, an Australian radio announcer, spotted an elderly woman singing carols alone by candlelight. Moved by her solitary celebration, Banks organised the first official Carols by Candlelight. Since then, it has grown into a beloved national event, with significant gatherings in Melbourne, Sydney, and other cities. Families come with picnic blankets, candles, and sometimes glow sticks to join the festive spirit.
- Boxing Day Tradition
Boxing Day is a public holiday in Australia. The day after Christmas is marked by several traditions, including the Boxing Day Test Match in Melbourne and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The cricket match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is an iconic event that draws massive crowds. The yacht race from Sydney Harbour to Hobart, Tasmania, showcases world-class sailing and is eagerly followed by Australians nationwide. These events extend the holiday spirit and give families an extra day to celebrate.
Christmas Lunch: A Feast of Fresh Produce
Unlike the heavy roasts and puddings in colder climates, an Australian Christmas lunch often features fresh seafood, summer fruits, and salads. Prawns, lobsters, and oysters are holiday favourites, alongside platters of mangoes, cherries, and pavlova, a meringue-based dessert topped with cream and fresh fruit. This light, refreshing meal suits the hot weather perfectly, and many families choose to eat outdoors, either in their backyard or at the beach.
Christmas Bush
While many Australians decorate their homes with traditional Christmas trees, some embrace the native Christmas Bush, an Australian plant with small red and white flowers that bloom around Christmas time. The plant’s vibrant colours add a natural, festive touch to homes and are a reminder of Australia’s rich flora.
Christmas lights
The warm climate means many Australians spend time outdoors, so outdoor decorations are popular, too. Lights are strung up on homes, fences, and even garden plants. Inflatable Santas, reindeer, and kangaroos (a humorous Aussie touch) bring extra cheer to neighbourhoods. Some homes participate in decorating competitions, drawing crowds to see their elaborate displays.
Christmas Windows
The Myer Christmas Windows are a beloved holiday tradition in Melbourne, Australia. Since 1956, the Myer department store has unveiled an elaborate series of animated window displays each year to celebrate Christmas. These windows, located at Myer’s flagship store on Bourke Street, tell a different themed story annually, often based on popular children’s books, festive tales, or original stories created specifically for the display. Each window showcases a meticulously crafted scene with animated characters, intricate backdrops, and detailed props, all brought to life with movement, sound, and lighting effects.
Christmas for Kids: School Holidays and Santa Sacks
For Australian children, Christmas coincides with the end of the school year, adding an extra layer of excitement. December marks the start of the long summer holidays, and Christmas is often the beginning of weeks of adventure and relaxation.
Santa Claus is a big part of the celebrations, and children often write letters to Santa, hang stockings, or leave out a snack for him. However, some Australian children leave Santa a cold beer or a slice of pavlova instead of milk and cookies, a nod to the Aussie way of celebrating. Kids wake up on Christmas morning to find gifts under the tree or in Santa sacks, larger, pillowcase-sized versions of stockings filled with presents.
Christmas in the Cities: Lights and Festivals
Australia’s cities come alive during Christmas with light displays, parades, and festive markets. Each major city has its own unique celebration:
- Sydney hosts an annual Christmas concert in the Domain. Famous landmarks, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, are lit with festive colours.
- Melbourne is known for its Christmas projections along Swanston Street, transforming buildings with colourful lights and images of Santa, reindeer, and more.
- Adelaide holds one of the largest Christmas parades in the Southern Hemisphere, the Adelaide Christmas Pageant. With floats, dancers, and music, it heralds the beginning of the holiday season.
Christmas Down Under: A Celebration of Diversity and Sunshine
For visitors and locals alike, Christmas in Australia offers a warm, vibrant, and inclusive holiday season. While the traditions may differ from the northern hemisphere’s classic winter wonderland, the spirit of joy, generosity, and celebration remains the same. From beach barbecues and outdoor carolling to cricket matches and sunny festivities, Australians have made Christmas their own, blending cultural traditions with the natural beauty of their homeland.
Across Victoria, the sunflowers are blooming. Fields of tall, large plants with daisy-like flower faces turned the sun attract photographers and tourists alike. To get the best results, plan how to photograph sunflowers before you head out to the fields.
Sunflowers in Victoria bloom from January to March.
Gear to Use
While you can use a phone camera – your best shots will come using a DSLR or Mirrorless camera. A lens such as the 12-24mm or 24-70mm range will work for all your shots if you photograph the sunflowers themselves. If you wish to shoot portraits against the fields, then go for a focal range of 35mm-85mm. If you want to shoot close-ups of the sunflowers, then a macro works best. But unless you have rock-steady hands (I don’t), put the camera on a tripod when using the macro.
Camera Settings
Firstly – shoot in Aperture Priority mode. If you are shooting portraits and want the narrow depth of field with background bokeh, then set your F stop at F/1.8 to F/2.8. For landscape shots, use F/16 to get as much in focus and sharp as possible. Keep your ISO as low as possible, ideally at ISO 100 or 200.
Shooting a model
If you are photographing people in the field, colour coordination becomes important. Ask your subject to wear white or blue clothing. They will need to avoid yellows and greens, or they will vanish into the field.
Focus Stacking
This isn’t completely necessary – and if you do, then use the tripod again. But if what is nearest to you is out of focus and the rest in focus, focus stacking will help if you want the entire scene in focus.
Best conditions for sunflower fields
Ideally, the best time is overcast days with no harsh shadows. However, that means you miss the beautiful blue skies (unless you sky swap with Luminar). Shooting at golden hour produces the best light – but most fields don’t open to visitors that early or late. To avoid the harsh shadows on a sunny day, try to time your shots to avoid the midday to 3 pm window.
Details
Don’t forget the back of the sunflower or the buds that haven’t bloomed yet. They are still interesting subjects.
Perspective
Get down low or go higher. Using a wide angle, try laying on the ground and shooting up through the flowers. Bring a step ladder along and get above the flowers.
Sunflower fields
Sunflower fields are not as plentiful as canola fields. And those that allow access are even fewer. The largest sunflower field in Victoria that allows visitors is Pick Your Own Sunflowers at Navigators Road, Dunnstown near Ballarat. Entry is $5 per person.
The North East Silo Art Trail is the second silo trail we have done. The first was the Silo Art Trail out of Horsham back in 2014. The North East Silo Trail starts just out of Benalla and includes the small towns of Goorambat, Devenish, St James, and Tungamah. At Tungamah, it turns back to Benalla via the Winton Wetlands. We did the trip in January with heavy, heavy smoke haze from the Gippsland bushfires and a few closer to home.
Goorambat
Following the downloadable map, we set off from Benalla, covering the northeast silo art trail for the 132km trail. With frequent stops to photograph the silos in tiny ghost towns and take in a picnic at Winton Wetlands, the drive took 4 hours by the time we completed it.
Our first stop was Goorambat Silo featuring the work of Jimmy Dvate, who created the Barking Owl and Clydesdale horses
Just a few minutes further up the road is the Goorambat Uniting Church. The church is open every day, and fortunately, they don’t mind you coming in to photograph the mural in the church by Adnate
Devenish
From Goorambat, it was a short 13km hop to the Devenish Silos. Completed in April 2018 for the purpose of coinciding with the 100th centenary of the end of the First World War, they depict a modern-day combat medic, a WWI nurse and a WWI Light horseman. The art is the work of Cam Scale.
St James
Retreating back in the coolness of the car we made for St James – just a short hop of 8.6kms down the road.
The St James silo’s are the work of local artist Tim Bowtell and tell the story of George Coles, the founder of the Coles supermarket empire. George bought the local shop from his father in St James in 1900 before moving to Tasmania and opening another shop. This was followed by another in Collingwood in 1914, and the rest, as they say in the classics, is history.
Tungamah
The last silo’s on this run were 13kms north at Tungamah with the artwork by West Australian artist Sobrane Simcock. They feature dancing Brolga’s, Kookaburra’s and Galah’s, all local to the low-lying swamps. This silo was notably the first silo in the North East trail and the first by an Australian female silo artist.
Winton Wetlands
Turning southwards, back towards Benalla, we headed for the Winton Wetlands 60kms away. It was edging closer to lunchtime, and we planned a picnic at Winton Wetlands. However, the temperature outside the car had climbed to the high 30s, laden with heavy smoke haze, to say nothing of the plague of flies waiting for us. So we decided under the circumstances, a picnic in the car was an excellent idea. With the motor running to keep the aircon pumping, of course.
Contrary to its name, the wetlands are far from wet. On the other hand, maybe they are wetter in winter or spring. But in the middle of the worst drought, Australia has seen in decades, the entire place is dry as dust.
We entered via the Boggy Bridge road driving past Martins Barge and the Boggy Bridge Fish Trees.
The fish trees depict the long-gone Giant Murray Cod that used to swim in the areas of the wetlands.
We followed the road to what we decided would be our final destination of the day – the CFA water tank. The tank features the faces of three CFA volunteers on its side. It seemed to be an omen on one that, bearing in the mind the current climate of heat, drought and bushfires, it appeared to have tears as dry as the dirt it stood on.
Calling it a day
By now, the heat, haze, and flies were getting beyond bearable, so we drove back to Benalla for cool showers and a change of clothes. To say nothing of a side trip to the bottle shop for some ice-cold Corona’s. We stayed in for the rest of the afternoon. Doing justice to the Corona’s and a bottle of NZ Sav Blanc. The next day we planned to capture as much street art in Benalla as possible.