Page:Hunt - The climate and weather of Australia - 1913.djvu/77

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In our description of the monthly rainfall we saw that the distribution areas were shaped like crescents. The summer rain crescent includes Northern Australia and South-eastern Australia; the winter rain crescent includes South-western Australia and South-eastern Australia. In other words, the two crescents do not meet in the north-west—so far as any but light rains are concerned—but overlap in the south-east. Hence the central coastal aridity in Western Australia, and the region of uniform monthly rainfall in Eastern Australia.

The latter region is a somewhat triangular area reaching from Wilcannia east to the coast at Port Macquarie, and south-east to Albury and thence to Melbourne. A reference to the following tables shows that Dubbo is the typical station, for, as already noted, it has just under 2 inches of rainfall each month of the year. Cobar and Wilcannia to the north-west and Goulburn and Delegate to the south-east are also on the axis of uniformity. To the north-east the summer rains grow proportionately greater—though a considerable amount of rain falls all the winter. To the south-west the June maximum becomes very evident—and West or South-west from the Grampians the winter rainfall is more than double that of summer.



59. Anticyclone causing south-easterly winds and rain in coastal districts of New South Wales.