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Lovely Djilba weather we're having: a guide to the Noongar seasons

You might have wondered what's been up with the weather lately – alternating seemingly by the hour between torrential rain and sunshine.

The weather in early September can be a bit unpredictable, straddling the calendar boundary between winter and spring.

The Noongar seasons may be better at highlighting the changes to our environment being wrought by climate change than ...
The Noongar seasons may be better at highlighting the changes to our environment being wrought by climate change than the European seasons. Photo: Peter Braig

But according to the Noongar cycle, we're in the middle of Djilba, which runs through August and September and is described as a "mixture of wet days with increasing number of clear, cold nights and pleasant warmer days".

Sounds like this week's weather to a tee, doesn't it?

The Noongar calendar has six seasons, rather than the four that were imported by European settlers.

Glenn Cook, WA manager of climate services with the Bureau of Meteorology, said the Noongar calendar made sense, as it was based on generations' worth of traditional knowledge.


But he added that the European four-season system also mapped pretty well to the climate in Perth and the South West, given its similarity to the Mediterranean region.

Mr Cook conceded, however, that both sets of seasons could be "a little arbitrary" when mapped against the 12 months of the Gregorian calendar, with the Bureau organising its data into month-long blocks.

This is one reason why we tend to consider new seasons as starting on the first of the month, rather than on an equinox or solstice. "That's how our tools have been developed. Because of the date structure of our computers, it's easy just to search for a particular month," Mr Cook said.

The Bureau then organises its data into three-month chunks when writing reports about winter rainfall, say, or spring temperatures. This is largely because of the tradition of using the four-season system in Western meteorology, although the Noongar cycle was also devised without knowledge of the 12-month calendar.

But intriguingly, it's not the calendar, or even necessarily the prevailing weather, that largely determines the Noongar seasons. Rather, it's the emergence of various plants and animals that dictate how and where traditional owners would have gathered their food.

Professor Len Collard, a researcher at the University of WA's School of Indigenous Studies, says that the Djilba season literally translates as the 'grassy time', when the preceding months of rainfall are reflected in the wealth of vegetation now growing.

In turn, that paves the way for Kumbarang, or the "time of plenty", when young birds are fledging and wildlife is abundant.

Traditionally, Noongars would have relied on this kind of seasonal knowledge to inform their hunter-gathering strategies. For instance, rainy weather means kangaroos have higher levels of worms, which makes kangaroo-hunting a bad idea at this time of year. Similarly, emu eggs will have already passed the edible stage. In short, "nature governs", Professor Collard said.

Although few people live hunter-gatherer lifestyles today, the principle could also help to teach us how to fish or hunt in a sustainable way, he added.

For instance, "it's not in our interest to be killing the mother duck while she's sitting on the eggs, because then the eggs might not survive and we won't have as many ducks the next year".

The Noongar seasons may also be better at highlighting the changes to our environment being wrought by climate change, Mr Cook said.

"The Noongar people would have based their calendar on what they see and experience – their calendar would have been a moving feast every year. There is lots of evidence that environmental cues are changing because of the changing temperatures and rainfall," he said.

For example, this August, which featured average temperatures more typical of September, warming temperatures could trigger plants or animals to flower of reproduce earlier, potentially throwing the traditional seasonal cues out of whack.

Nevertheless, Professor Collard questions why we need to use a system of seasons which was imported from the other side of the world. "Do we really need this system? Or do we get back and understand the sense of place of where we are?"

The Bureau of Meteorology admits that it uses the four-season calendar mainly for simplicity. But it also collects climate knowledge from traditional owners right around Australia.

"We are very mindful of the knowledge that has been gained over the years by traditional owners," Mr Cook said. "The Bureau recognises that we're not the only people who have thought about this."

The Noongar Seasons

Birak (Dec-Jan): Dry and hot. Also known as Season of the Young.

Bunuru (Feb-Mar): Hottest part of the year. Also known as Season of Adolescence.

Djeran (Apr-May): Cooler weather begins. Also known as Season of Adulthood.

Makuru (Jun-Jul): Coldest and wettest time of the year; more frequent gales and storms. Also known as Fertility Season.

Djilba (Aug-Sept): Mixture of wet days with increasing number of clear, cold nights and pleasant warmer days. Also known as Season of Conception.

Kambarang (Oct-Nov): Longer dry periods. Also known as Season of Birth.

(Descriptions courtesy of the WA Bureau of Meteorology/South West Aboriginal Land and Sea Council)


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