The Noongar six seasons

We acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the traditional custodians of the land Perth is built on, and Noongar people across the south-west as the custodians of the knowledge on this page. The six seasons are not ours. They belong to Noongar people, they are still in daily use, and everything below is a summary of what the Bureau of Meteorology’s Nyoongar calendar publishes — go and read the source.

We include it because it is the most accurate seasonal model of Perth available, and because a landscaper working to a December-January-February summer will get the timing wrong every year.

The six seasons

Season	Meaning	Typical months	What the country is doing	What it means on your block
Birak (video)	Season of the young — first summer	December-January	Rains ease, warmth takes hold. Near-clockwork easterly mornings and south-west sea breezes each afternoon. Traditional mosaic burning time. Fledglings leaving nests, reptiles shedding, frogs finishing their change	Establishment is over. Nothing new goes in. Audit irrigation uniformity now, before the real heat
Bunuru (video)	Season of adolescence — second summer	February-March	The hottest time, with little to no rain. Hot easterlies, cooling afternoon sea breeze near the coast. Season of white flowers: Jarrah, Marri and ghost gums. Female Zamia (Macrozamia riedlei) cones ripen green to red	Peak plant stress and peak trade risk. Do not plant. Do not lay turf. Shade and mulch are doing all the work
Djeran (video)	Season of adulthood — autumn	April-May	The heat finally breaks. Cool, dewy mornings, light southerly breezes, flying ants. Season of red flowers: Red-flowering Gum (Corymbia ficifolia), Summer Flame (Beaufortia aestiva). Rust-coloured cones on Sheoak (Allocasuarina fraseriana). Banksias begin. Time to repair shelter before winter	The best planting window of the year. Soil still warm, rain arriving, months of mild weather ahead for roots
Makuru (video)	Season of fertility — winter	June-July	Coldest and wettest. Winds swing west and south. Catchments fill. Wardong (ravens) pairing up, Mali (Black Swans) arriving to nest. Blue and purple flowers: Blueberry Lily (Dianella revoluta), Purple Flags (Patersonia occidentalis)	Sprinklers are illegal (see below). Planting continues. This is when bad drainage finally shows itself — go and look at the site in the rain
Djilba (video)	Season of conception — first spring	August-September	Transitional and unreliable: very cold clear days mixed with warm, rainy, windy ones. The flowering explosion starts, yellow Acacias first. Koolbardi (magpies) and Djidi Djidi (willie wagtails) nesting and swooping. Balga (grass tree) flower stalks emerge	Last good planting window. Warn crews about swooping. Weeds are growing faster than anything you planted
Kambarang (video)	Season of birth — second spring	October-November	Colour everywhere: Acacias, Banksias, Kangaroo Paw, orchids, flowering Balgas. Mooja, the Australian Christmas Tree (Nuytsia), flowers orange-yellow to signal the heat is coming. October is the most likely month to see a snake. Longer dry spells, clear warming trend	Finish planting early in the season or wait until Djeran. Get mulch down now. Brief crews on snakes

Why this beats the four seasons

This is not a nice story. It is a better model, and the Bureau’s own Perth Metro records prove it.

Noongar season	Months	Mean max (°C)	Rainfall over the season (mm)
Birak	Dec-Jan	29.6, 31.4	25.5
Bunuru	Feb-Mar	31.7, 29.7	32.7
Djeran	Apr-May	26.0, 22.5	120.6
Makuru	Jun-Jul	19.5, 18.5	274.1
Djilba	Aug-Sep	19.2, 20.7	205.1
Kambarang	Oct-Nov	23.5, 26.8	64.0

Three things fall out of that table.

February is Perth’s hottest month, not January. A mean maximum of 31.7 °C, against January’s 31.4 °C. The Noongar calendar puts February in the middle of Bunuru, the hottest season. The European calendar has already called it late summer and starts autumn on 1 March — when Perth is still averaging 29.7 °C on 20 mm of rain. Every “autumn planting” schedule imported from the eastern states or from Britain is about six weeks early here, and that error kills plants.

The wet is a distinct season, not a background condition. Makuru’s two months deliver 274 mm, roughly 38 per cent of Perth’s 718.5 mm annual mean. Add Djilba and you have about two-thirds of the year’s rain in four months. A garden designed as though rainfall is spread evenly is designed for a city that does not exist.

There are two springs and two summers, and they behave differently. Djilba is cold, wet and yellow; Kambarang is warm, drying and multicoloured. Birak is breezy and survivable; Bunuru is not. Collapsing each pair into one word throws away the distinction that actually governs when you can work and what will live.

The legal overlay

WA water law lines up with Makuru almost exactly. The Winter Sprinkler Switch-off bans sprinklers outright from 1 June to 31 August for scheme and bore users, with $100 fines — all of Makuru plus the first month of Djilba. The rule and the calendar are saying the same thing.

Planting through that ban is still legal under a watering exemption: up to 35 days at a recommended 7.5 mm a day between 1 April and 30 September — which covers Djeran, Makuru and Djilba, the three seasons you should be planting in — or up to 42 days at 10 mm a day between 1 October and 31 March. Apply on the day you plant.

Birak’s mosaic burning has no domestic equivalent today. Prohibited and Restricted Burning Times are set by each local government, not by the State, and DFES simply tells you to contact yours and to get a permit during restricted times. Adjoining councils genuinely differ, and many metropolitan councils ban garden burning outright year-round. Search your council’s name plus “burning restrictions” — do not rely on what the last job’s council allowed.

Using this properly

The seasons are read from indicators, not from a calendar. The Bureau is explicit that they can be long or short and are marked by what is changing around you — the swans moulting, the Balgas throwing flower stalks, the first Acacia gold. In a dry year Djeran arrives late; watch the country rather than the date. Kings Park’s 2026 Noongar Boodja programme places Djilba in mid-September, later than the Bureau’s August-September gloss — because it is a real season, not a fixed block.

Perth is Whadjuk boodja. Noongar country runs from south of Geraldton to Esperance and holds several groups, so the indicator species and the timing shift as you move. If you want local knowledge for your site — or a Welcome to Country for a project — SWALSC lists the six regional corporations with direct contacts. Credit Noongar people by name whenever you use this material, and if it is going into something client-facing or commercial, talk to them first rather than lifting a table off a website.