Mayor calls for six-season Indigenous calendar

Melbourne Lord Mayor wants to switch to a six-season Indigenous calendar, claiming it would be more representative of the city’s weather that the current four season model.

“In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer,” Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece told 3AW Radio.

“A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense.

“But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne.

“They don’t really match up with the weather patterns that we experience over the 12 months.’

“This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense.”

The idea has received a mixed response, but his idea was backed up by an article in the National Geographic Magazine in 2013 by Tim Entwhistle, who said four seasons didn’t make sense.

Dr Entwisle advocated a five-season calendar where spring should begin a month early and last just two months instead three.

There would then be a two-month ‘sprummer’, a four-month summer starting in December, and then autumn.