Imported Understandings: Calendars, Weather and Climate in Tropical Australia, 1870s-1940s

Abstract

Weather happens in time yet disregards calendars. However, calendrical time�especially the month�structures how modern meteorology examines and narrates atmospheric dynamics. Using almanacs and historical weather records, this chapter examines how European settlers came to be structurally blind to the variable climates of Australia�s far north, how in effect cultural constructions overrode the reality of weather events and climate. It focuses on the region now defined by the city of Darwin in the period from 1869 to 1942.1 This region is located on the coastal fringe of the Northern Territory and is part of what is now understood as Australia�s monsoon belt. Taking up William Cronon�s imperative to �tell stories about stories about nature,�2 it unmasks the �natural� as copiously cultural and reveals how dominant understandings of time have led us to misunderstand weather. Show more