Melbourne Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece has endorsed a move to adopt a six-season Indigenous calendar, arguing it more accurately represents the city's unique climate than the traditional European system.

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Speaking on 3AW, Reece said the idea came out of the Melbourne 2050 Summit, where around 1,000 people gathered in May to discuss the city’s long-term future. He pointed to the traditional Wurundjeri calendar, which divides the year into six distinct seasons.

“In the Wurundjeri calendar, there were six seasons in the year. It was a wet summer and a dry summer. A wet winter and a dry winter. And when you think about it, it makes sense,” Reece said.

“When you think about it, it makes sense. But we have gone and superimposed the four seasons essentially from Northern Europe here in Melbourne.

“They don't really match up with the weather patterns that we experienced over the 12 months.”

'It makes sense': Melbourne's Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece supports Indigenous six-season calendar over 'Northern Europe' onehttps://t.co/vCmXQfVYCR

Why does #SkyNewsAust give this attention seeker so much attention? It's not the job of a council. pic.twitter.com/7J0xJ96Mq2

— Timjbo 🇦🇺 (@Tim_jbo) August 6, 2025

Reece said adopting a six-season model would not only reflect local weather patterns more accurately, but also honour Indigenous knowledge systems, similar to seasonal frameworks used in countries like Singapore.

“This is one of those things where a bit of First Nations knowledge appears to make a bit more sense … Literally, wattle season starts and that week you look around Melbourne and all of the wattle trees have turned fluorescent yellow and it’s beautiful,” he said.

“Aboriginal people who lived here for tens of thousands of years, in their calendar they had six seasons here in Melbourne and when you actually look at the calendar and the seasons you actually realise hey that actually does line up."