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

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33

Intermediate Region of Uniform Rains.

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.

Fig. 59.

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