The short answer
December in Australia is early summer in the south and the start of the wet season in the north. Sydney sits around 25°C, the southern beaches are at their best, and Tasmania has its warmest, longest days of the year. Far North Queensland and the Top End are hot, humid and stormy, with box jellyfish in the water from November, and the Red Centre is too hot to walk in comfortably.
So the short version: go south and go coastal. The east coast from Sydney down, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are all good to excellent in December. Cairns and Darwin are not the December trip, and Uluru is a genuinely bad idea in the heat.
The other half of the answer is money. Australian schools break up in the second half of December, the whole country goes on holiday at once, and prices follow. Travel in the first fortnight of December and you get the summer without the surcharge.
Australia weather in December, region by region
One table, because one national number for a continent is what every other page gives you and it is not usable.
| Region | December weather | Swimming | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| East coast (Sydney to Byron) | Warm summer, around 25°C in Sydney, afternoon storms possible | Good, and beaches are patrolled | Good |
| South (Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania) | The warmest, longest days of the year | Good, and cooler water than Queensland | Best month of the year |
| Tropical north (Cairns, Darwin, Kakadu) | Wet season under way: heat, humidity, storms, some road closures | Stinger season, so a suit or freshwater only | Avoid if December is your only window |
| Red Centre (Uluru, Alice Springs) | Peak desert heat | Not applicable | Wrong season, go May to September |
| West coast (Perth and north) | Hot and dry in the south west, building heat further north | Good around Perth | Workable, but not the west's best months |
Two things fall out of that table that most December guides do not say. The first is that the country's two climate systems are genuinely inverted: the temperate south has four seasons like Europe's, shifted six months, while the tropical north has only a wet and a dry, and December sits at the wrong end of both if you go north. The second is that "best time to visit Australia" and "best time to visit the Great Barrier Reef" are different questions with different answers, and December is where they split furthest apart.
The east coast in December: the default, and a good one
Sydney in December runs around 25°C with warm enough water to swim properly, and the beach patrols are on: New South Wales ocean beaches are patrolled from late September to late April, and in the 2026 and 2027 season that runs from 26 September to 25 April. Swim between the red and yellow flags and nowhere else. Rips are the real hazard on this coast, not sharks, and they do not look like anything from the sand.
Byron Bay and the Gold Coast are at their summer best too, with one caveat that catches northern visitors completely off guard. Schoolies, the school-leaver party weeks, run from late November into early December and land hardest on exactly those two towns. If a week of eighteen year olds celebrating the end of school is not your holiday, either time around it or go somewhere else on the coast for that fortnight.
Bring an umbrella as well as sunscreen. Summer on the east coast means real afternoon storms, and they clear as fast as they arrive.
Here is our own number, and it is the reason this article exists. December is the second most popular month to start an Australia trip among travellers who plan with Stippl, just behind January and comfortably ahead of November. But the whole year is flatter here than for any other country we look at: January's peak is 12.3% of trip starts, where Italy's July takes 18.2%. Australia does not really have an off season, it has regions that take turns, which is a much more useful way to plan it.
The south and Tasmania: December is the best month of the year
If you only take one recommendation from this page, take this one. Tasmania inverts the mainland's logic: it is a cool climate island, its alpine walks are miserable in the shoulder seasons, and December to February is when it gets its warmest weather and its longest daylight. A one week loop out of Hobart, taking in Bruny Island, Freycinet and Cradle Mountain, is close to the ideal use of an Australian December, and almost nobody flying in for Christmas thinks of it.
Victoria and South Australia work for the same reason. The Great Ocean Road is at its best in the warm half of the year, and Melbourne and Adelaide are both easier in summer than the heat further north. Melbourne comes with its own local joke about four seasons in one day, which is a genuine packing consideration rather than a line: take a layer even in December.
The one thing the south shares with everywhere else is the Christmas crush. Coastal campsites and holiday parks fill from late December to late January, and that is the fortnight to book months rather than weeks ahead.
The tropical north: what December actually looks like
Cairns, Port Douglas, Darwin and Kakadu are in the wet season in December, which runs roughly November to April. That means heat, heavy humidity, big storms, occasional cyclones and roads that can close without much warning. It also means low prices, empty rooms and a rainforest that looks the way rainforest is supposed to look.
The part that decides it for most people is the water. Box jellyfish season in northern Queensland runs roughly November to May, so ocean swimming means a stinger suit, a netted enclosure or nothing. That is why the photo above is the Cairns Esplanade lagoon rather than a beach: in December the town's swimming happens in a public pool by the sea. Crocodiles are the other reason to take the signs seriously in the Top End, in rivers, estuaries and sometimes on beaches.
Can you still dive the reef in December? Yes, boats run and the reef is there, but the dry season from about May to October is when the north is genuinely at its best, and if the reef is the reason for your whole trip then December is the wrong month for it. If you are already coming in December for other reasons, treat Cairns as a two or three day add-on rather than the centre of the trip.
The Red Centre and the west
Uluru and Kata Tjuta are at their best from about May to September, when desert temperatures are bearable and the long walks are safe to do. December is the opposite of that. The Base Walk is 10.6 km with no shade worth the name, and desert heat in midsummer is not a matter of being uncomfortable. If the Red Centre is on your list, it is a reason to come back in the southern winter rather than to squeeze it into a December trip.
The west coast is more forgiving. Perth in December is hot and dry and the beaches are at their best, so a Perth and Rottnest Island week is perfectly good. Further north, Ningaloo's whale sharks run from about mid-March to late July, so the west's headline experience is out of season. Perth is also the destination our own travellers plan furthest in advance of anywhere in the country, which is worth knowing if you are deciding late.
Christmas, New Year and what they do to prices
This is the section the operator pages skip, and it decides most December trips.
Australian school holidays start in the second half of December and run to late January. The whole country takes its summer break in that window, coastal campsites and holiday parks fill, domestic flights get expensive and accommodation rises everywhere. In Sydney, rooms roughly double over Christmas and New Year and hostels sell out.
New Year's Eve on Sydney Harbour is the extreme case and worth planning around either way. There are two fireworks shows, a family one at about 9 pm and the main one at midnight, and around a million people come to watch. Rooms and ticketed vantage points want booking two to three months out, and the free viewing spots have queues from dawn on 31 December.
Budget
€43–81 (AUD 70–130)
dorm or campsite, self-catering, buses/relocations, mostly free nature
Mid-range
€93–155 (AUD 150–250)
private rooms/motels, rental car split two ways, a paid tour every few days, one meal out
High-end
€186+ (AUD 300+)
hotels, campervan or own rental, frequent tours, restaurant dining
Three ways to take the sting out of it:
- Come in the first fortnight of December. You get the same summer weather, the school holidays have not started, and the prices are ordinary. This is the single best trick on this page.
- Camp. Among travellers who log what they spend in Australia with Stippl, campgrounds come out ahead of hostels and well ahead of apartments, and the price gap is the reason: about €42 (A$68) a night for a campsite against €208 (A$335) for a hotel room. In a country where camping infrastructure is this good, it is the normal choice rather than the budget one. Book coastal sites early for late December all the same.
- Split the difference on regions. Fly into Melbourne or Sydney and spend the expensive fortnight somewhere the crowd is not, which in December means Tasmania or the south coast rather than the Gold Coast.
For reference, a realistic day in Australia runs about €43 to €81 (A$70 to A$130) on a budget, €93 to €155 (A$150 to A$250) mid range and €186 (A$300) upwards at the comfortable end, before international flights. Add the Christmas fortnight on top of that.
What to pack for an Australian December
Summer clothes, and then three things northerners forget.
Sun protection first, and not as an afterthought. The summer UV index in Sydney reaches 13, Australia has the world's highest rate of skin cancer, and people burn here on cool and cloudy days. Factor 50, a hat and shade in the middle of the day are the local habit for a reason.
A layer, because the south is not uniformly hot. Melbourne genuinely changes weather within a day, Tasmania is cool at altitude even in high summer, and evenings on the coast can drop.
A light rain shell rather than an umbrella if you are going anywhere tropical, and swimming gear you can actually swim in. If you are heading to Queensland's north in stinger season, a stinger suit is hired locally rather than packed.
One paperwork note, since December fills up. Everyone needs an entry authority arranged before arrival, and there is no visa on arrival in Australia. EU and UK passports get the free eVisitor, US and Canadian passports pay about €12.40 (A$20) for an ETA, and everyone else needs a Visitor Visa from around €118 (A$190). Apply directly through the Department of Home Affairs, because agencies charge a service fee for the same thing.
Frequently asked questions about Australia
Yes, if you go south. December is early summer, and it is the best month of the year in Tasmania and very good along the east coast and through Victoria and South Australia. It is a poor month for the tropical north, which is in its wet season, and a bad one for the Red Centre, which is too hot.
Sydney sits around 25°C with warm water and occasional afternoon storms. The far south is at its warmest and brightest of the year. Cairns and Darwin are hot, humid and stormy with box jellyfish in the sea, and the desert interior is at its yearly peak of heat.
It becomes expensive from about the second half of the month. Australian school holidays run from mid December to late January, and flights, campsites and hotels all rise with them. The first two weeks of December are the sweet spot: same weather, ordinary prices.
In the south and along the east coast, yes, and beaches are patrolled from late September to late April. Swim between the flags. In northern Queensland, box jellyfish season runs roughly November to May, so ocean swimming needs a stinger suit or a netted enclosure, and the town lagoons are what most people use instead.
Boats run and the reef is open, but the dry season from about May to October is when the north is at its best for visibility, weather and swimming. If the reef is the whole reason for the trip, book a different month. If you are already in Australia in December, give it a couple of days.
December is a good month to be in Australia as long as you let the map decide where. Go south, keep the tropical north for a dry-season trip, and put the expensive fortnight somewhere the whole country is not already going. Build the route in a Stippl trip and the dates, the internal flights and the nights per stop all sit in one place while you are still deciding, and the budget planner will tell you what the Christmas surcharge is actually costing you before you commit to it.
