In Europe and North America, there’s a common misconception that countries south of the equator don’t experience cold Winters. And many of them don’t. But below 30º South – depending on your location in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Chile and Argentina – Winters can be quite chilly, sometimes even downright freezing.

On Saturday, a cold snap replaced the balmy Autumn weather we’d been enjoying. And with the cooler conditions, in swept the rain, right on time for the ANZAC Day ceremonies. Overnight, the temperature here plummeted to 4ºC.

In the northern hemisphere, there’s plenty of folklore about predictions of a cold Winter – such as extra thick tails on racoons, variations in the banding of Woolly Bear caterpillars, the nesting habits of muskrats and an abundance of acorns.

Without recourse to observations of racoons, Wolly Bears and muskrats, I’ll have to rely on the yield of oak trees in parks across the region. They are, in fact, laden with acorns and late in the afternoons, Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos squawk and squabble over them before settling down to feast.

If an unusual numbers of spiders in the house are a predictor, we’re definitely in for a colder-than-usual Winter. Large Huntsman have been presenting themselves regularly in the living room. We transport them outdoors in a plastic container, kept specifically for that purpose.

One joined us for a car trip to Ballarat last week, clinging to the windscreen like an arachnoid version of Indiana Jones before disappearing into the bodywork. It later emerged in the shopping centre car park, scuttling off to make a home inside a more modern, more luxurious chassis than ours.

We’ve also had visitations from mice, another predictor of cold weather if they invade the house. So far we’ve managed to escape the pleasure of their company inside, but they like to chew on empty milk cartons in the recycling box on the back deck. Two have been despatched by a whiz-bang ‘humane’ plastic mouse-trap, the type that superseded those wood and wire devices once believed to be the ultimate in mouse-trap design.

It’s said that a reliable sign of a cold Winter is the number of berries on Hawthorns. Across the district, those lining the paddocks are heavy with fruit, as are Cotoneaster berries (another sure-fire indicator) in gardens around Daylesford.

As for mushrooms, I’ve never seen so many. Whether these forecast a perishingly cold Winter is anyone’s guess, but good rain in Autumn has delivered a bumper crop.

If you’re a snow bunny who’s keen to know if this Winter will yield ski-able piste, here’s some advice: Watch for pigs gathering sticks.

Acknowledgment: Farmers’ Almanac