Sydney in June/July

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what to expect of Sydney (and if possible its diving as well) in winter (weather, ambience, etc.). I will be living in Manly for several weeks. I've heard some say it's quite cool at times and seen pictures of people wearing scarves and fairly thick jackets during the day, while other say it's gorgeous and low 20s. so I'm a bit confused. Could it be compared to a month of Toronto weather for comparison? Thanks.

June & July are probably the coldest months of the year. But during the day it probably gets to the very low 20's at the hottest point of the day. On a cool day it would be closer to 15 and could go as low as 10.

I was in Brisbane for my first (and only) winter here so it might be a touch warmer here. But you'll get conflicting reports because my first winter here I though was beautiful and I was wandering around in t-shirts even at 20 degrees. Some of the aussies would be wearing long sleeve shirts and you might see the occassional jacket or scarf. I was house hunting at the time and everytime I showed up at a house they said "you must be freezing".

The evenings though do get very cool. They don't really have ducted heating (or insulation) in the houses here so if it gets cold outside the inside gets cold as well. At the coldest part of the winter in Brisbane we were wearing our warmest clothes in the evening in the house and then again in the morning when we woke up. I also had a little space heater that I had running in the mornings and evenings. This cold spell only lasted a couple of weeks.

So I would definitely bring a couple long sleeve shirts and maybe a light jacket. Also some really warm pajamas. Other than that jeans and a t-shirt would do just fine during mid day.

I lived and worked in Manly for four years, coming from Winnipeg. It is a fantastic place year round. The winds can be really stiff, coming off either the harbour or from the ocean beach. Temperature never was below 10, and I never wore more than sweatshort. Most days I was in shorts.

I did some snorkelling at Shelly Beach. I did see 2 small and harmless appearing, 1 meter long sharks, a big grouper and lots of sea grassand other fish. There are a 3-4 dive shops right in Manly, so best to contact them for more on Northern beachs/Harbour diving.

The Ivanhoe was CDN friendly as was the North Steyne. The Ivanhoe would even put on the hockey as a 7PM east coast game would start at 10AM. Also try and hit the Harbour diggers club. Its massive and cheap food and beer.