Australia's biggest cities shivered Wednesday through an Antarctic cold front which has brought some of the lowest temperatures in years.
Sydney awoke to rare frost and temperatures of 4.3 degrees Celsius (39.7 Fahrenheit), its coldest June morning since 1983, a day after Melbourne flirted with its chilliest day on record.
Capital city Canberra was carpeted in frost while Ballarat in Victoria, near Melbourne, Tuesday clocked 5.1 degrees C, its lowest in a decade. Forecasters blamed the cool spell on a blast of icy weather from the Antarctic.
"There's been a persistent ridge of high pressure over New South Wales and a lot of cold air is lying around underneath this ridge," said weather bureau spokesman Stephen Stefanac.
The cold snap coincides with a sharp increase in homelessness blamed on problems caused by the economic downturn.
A Salvation Army survey found the number of people sleeping rough had nearly doubled in the Australian Capital Territory, around Canberra, since 2008, and was up 65 percent in Sydney's state of New South Wales.
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