Canberra Rule #1: You aren’t a real Canberran if you turn your heating on before ANZAC Day (25th April).
After we moved to Canberra in 2012, we were nervous about just how cold our first winter was going to be (freezing, if you want to know). We turned our heating on as the thermometer dipped – no shivering through nights for us. Then ANZAC Day rolled around on 25th April and we heard locals heave a sigh of relief. Turns out they hadn’t turned their heating on yet – because it wasn’t time. Didn’t matter that nights were well into sub-freezing temps, the unofficial ‘turn on heater’ moment hadn’t arrived.
So the next year we tried to do the same… we did better, but our heating was on before the magic date.
We’re better now. This will be our second year in a row with no heating before H-Day. We’ll ignore the fact that this year and last were a smidge warmer and pretend it’s solely because we’ve acclimatised and become ‘real’ Canberrans.
When do you turn on your heating?