Australia's shortest day of the year this weekend

The Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice will occur this Sunday, marking the shortest day of the year in Australia based on daylight hours.

The winter solstice marks the moment either of Earth’s poles reaches its furthest tilt away from the Sun. When this happens, the hemisphere oriented away from the Sun experiences its shortest day of the year based on the amount of time between sunrise and sunset.

The 2026 winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere will occur at 8:25 am UTC (6:25 pm AEST) on Sunday, June 21.

Australia's capital city day lengths will range from about nine hours in Hobart to just over 11 hours and 20 minutes in Darwin. This almost 2.5-hour difference is due to the difference in latitude between southern and northern Australia.

This weekend's winter solstice will cause Australia to have its shortest day of the year based on daylight hours
Image: Sunrise, sunset and day length times on the date of the 2026 winter solstice. Source: Weatherzone.

While the winter solstice doesn’t have any direct influence on the weather, it does mark the start of the astronomical winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The long nights surrounding the solstice also offer a good opportunity to view things in the night sky, including this month’s full moon on the night of June 30.

Following the 2026 winter solstice on Sunday, days will start to get longer, and nights will get shorter in Australia. This trend will continue for the following six months until the date of the summer solstice in late-December.