The late arrival of Australia’s monsoon is creating havoc with weather across the country, but some busy tradies and farmers are happy about the delay.
Northern Australia’s weeks-long windy summer drenching is always anticipated like an old friend — ending droughts, feeding crops and livestock, and bringing to life forests, creeks, rivers, and coasts in the glorious wet season.
If the monsoon does not arrive by January 25, it will be the latest since Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) records began in 1957.
BOM climatologist Greg Browning has predicted the monsoon will hit Australia about January 26.
Jimmy Wailu says the monsoon will be good for wildlife. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
Mer Island local and former commercial fisherman Jimmy Wailu was fishing for queenfish, trevally, mangrove jacks, and salmon in heatwave conditions at high noon and high tide off Cairns Marlin Wharf this week.
“During the monsoon it’ll be bad for fishing, but it’s going to be really good for fishing after the monsoon off the wharf and the esplanade,” he said.
Jimmy Wailu catches his dinner from the wharf. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
“It’ll be good for the prawns and the pelicans are going to be having a good feed.”
Sugar cane farmer Mark Savina said his 400 hectare farm in the Cairns suburb of Freshwater was relishing the hot days, compared with record December 2023 floods which delayed his 2024 harvest.
Mark Savina is making cane while the sun shines. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
“The cane is absolutely screaming along with the heat we’re getting. It’s perfect for us. There’s plenty of moisture still in the ground after recent storms,” he said.
“It’s allowed us to get out in the paddocks and finish our maintenance sprays and plant our soybeans, sunflower, sun hemp, and all those multi-cropping crops that we put into for the fallow.”
Tradies squeeze in work
Despite heatwave conditions, Cairns roofer Scott Carpenter said it had been a mild wet season and he was not complaining about the dry weather.
He has told his workers to complete as many hours as possible before the monsoon forces them off the job.
Scott Carpenter says dry weather is allowing him to catch up with work. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
“The next seven to 10 days, we’re going to be fairly good. But I’m not sure what’s going to happen after that,” he said.
But that means long hot days on the tools.
“You’ve just got to get to work as early as you can, and you do what you can,” he said.
“We’re lucky with the waterways. The boys knock off and they go down to a couple of nice little swim holes and dunk themselves in there for the afternoon.”
Tourists and residents cool off at Cairns Esplanade Lagoon. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
Gardeners eager for drenching
In Innisfail, regularly among Australia’s wettest towns, the gardeners are restless.
Pat Pensini recently moved house with all her thirsty plants.
Rose Caltabiano, Pat Peneini, Yvonne Cunningham, and Gillard the Jack Russell. (Supplied: Yvonne Cunningham)
“I am definitely hanging out for the monsoon. I’m sick of standing there watering for hours,” she said.
Former cane farmer Rose Caltabiano has also downsized to an urban garden.
“We’ve got to pay for town water, but we’ve got to keep our plants alive as well,” she said.
“But I’ll pay for it. It’s my hobby.”
While ABC talkbalk gardener Yvonne Cunningham has a plentiful fresh spring on her property at the mouth of the Johnstone River, she said there was nothing like rain.
“The storms bring nitrogen down with fresh water, the rainwater is highly oxygenated, and you can just see the difference that it makes to the garden when we have monsoon rain,” she said.
Everyone’s affected
Australian National University climatologist Jeanette Lindsay attributed severe weather and high temperatures in New South Wales to the lack of reflective cloud cover and rainfall provided by a monsoon, which would normally be soaking the north by now.
Janette Lindesay says the effects of a late monsoon are wide-reaching. (Supplied: ANU)
“That really high temperature and very moist air has contributed to the severity of the storms that have been experienced,” she told The World Today.
“It’s kind of an atmospheric river of moisture that is drawn in at about 10 or 12 kilometres above the surface, and it’s drawn out of the tropics and down across the continent to connect up with any cold front systems that pass to the south of the continent.”
Mr Browning said the effects of the monsoon were felt nationwide.
Greg Browning predicts the monsoon to hit Australia around January 26. (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)
While Alice Springs, Tennant Creek, and Mount Isa had seen past monsoonal troughs, spin-off low-pressure systems brought drought-breaking rain and floods to NSW and Brisbane.
“Anywhere from Adelaide right through to Sydney, the tropical influence brings rainfall that is so much heavier,” he said.
‘Pretty torrid conditions’
Mr Browning predicted it was unlikely current monsoon activity off the Western Australian coast would develop into a strong monsoonal trough.
The sunny school holidays allow more days net-fishing. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
“Unfortunately, we’ll go back to more typical build-up type conditions, isolated storms, and pretty torrid conditions over basically all of northern Australia for a few days or even a week,” he said.
A monsoon has never failed to develop according to BOM records.
Mr Browning said unusually warm waters around northern Australia this summer might be to blame for the delay.
Cruise ship passengers are seeing some unseasonably dry weather. (ABC Far North: Conor Byrne)
“The amount of warm water, and how warm that is, I would say is almost certainly related to climate change,” he said.
“Whether you could draw that bow and say that climate change is doing something to our monsoon, that would be something that requires further research.”
Mr Browning said warm waters could mean northern Australia could expect above median rainfall this wet season.
