If this is your first time in Australia, you've probably already had the moment. Mild day, bit of cloud, 24 degrees, you're outside for an hour and a half and you come back looking like a lobster 🦞

That's because sunburn has nothing to do with temperature. It's UV, and the UV in Australia is a lot stronger…

Australians cop up to 15% more UV than Europeans at similar latitudes. In a Queensland summer the UV Index regularly hits 11 and above, which is the top of the scale. In Brisbane and up the coast, you need protection every month of the year, not just in summer.

Here's what actually works.

1. 🧴Sunscreen - how much?

The real measure: seven teaspoons, about 35ml, for a full body. One teaspoon per arm, one per leg, one for your front, one for your back, one for face, neck and ears.

✨Set a reminder on your phone for reapplication

2. 🕶️ Sunnies that are actually rated

Unrated sunnies are genuinely bad for your eyes. Dark lenses make your pupils open wider, so if they're not filtering UV you're letting more of it in than with no sunnies at all.

Check the swing tag for AS/NZS 1067.1:2016 and a lens category of 2, 3 or 4. Categories 0 and 1 are legally classified as fashion glasses, not sunnies.

✨Tips: (1) wrap-around, close-fitting frames stop UV sneaking in around the edges, and (2) polarised has nothing to do with UV protection, it cuts glare off water and wet roads, but it's not sun protection.

3. 👕 A rashie beats reapplying

If you're in and out of the water all day, sunscreen is a battle you will lose. Every swim and every towel-off takes a layer off.

A rash shirt just works, all day, with no reapplying and no missed patches across your shoulders. Chuck one in the van and it'll outlast about six bottles of sunscreen.

4. 🧢 A brim, not a cap

Caps leave your ears, your neck and the sides of your face fully exposed. A broad-brimmed or bucket hat covers all three, and it cuts the UV reaching your eyes by around half on its own.

5. 📱 Check the UV

Protection is recommended any time the UV Index hits 3 or above, even though it is overcast or cool.

Free and takes five seconds: the SunSmart Global UV app, or the Bureau of Meteorology forecast. Look at the UV number before you decide whether today is a sunscreen day.

🚐 The one road trippers forget

Long driving days quietly cook your right arm and the right side of your face. Sunscreen on a big drive matters just as much as sunscreen at the beach

There's no such thing as a safe tan here. A tan is your skin telling you it's already been damaged. 🙃