My plants are indoors in winter where the temps range between 5C to 16C. I don't stop watering at all. But I'm very light-handed with the dihydrogen oxide -- maybe every 10 days or more. You can use that as benchmark. Also find out if you have winter growers that might actually need more water this time of year instead of less.

This can be confusing. The best thing to do is get to know your plants and where they come from. I live on the Northern Hemisphere, but I do own succulents that originate from the Southern Hemisphere. For example Lithops I don't water now. I water when my fall comes around which would be your spring. I keep them out of harsh sun and just let them take their little plant nap. I water them early fall, but protect them in the winter. If I lived in hardiness zone 10 I probably wouldn't need to protect them. In Dec and Jan it gets a little too cold at night where I live. The worst combo for succulents is watering them, and then keeping them unprotected during a frosty night.

Sounds like where you live it's pretty mild during the winter. Right now probably a lot of your cactus are starting their growing period. As long as everything is in fast draining soil the rains shouldn't be a problem. If you get downpours I would find a way to protect them, but if it's just normal rains I wouldn't worry. Like I said what you have to worry about is the cold. If you get frosty nights you will need to protect them.

edit: sorry I'm stupid I only know Fahrenheit. I had to figure out what 10C is converted to F. Your fine no worries. As long as the coldest is 10C your golden:).

Thanks Kara and Pagan.

Coldest night is probably only 8ºC, so we don't really get frost, and never ever snow or anything like that. When it rains in Sydney, it usually rains pretty hard and heavy, so keeping succulents outdoors isn't really an option for me, because I don't have a way to shelter them from that heavy rain.

I guess I am a bit confused about the seasonal thing- do succulents and cacti have internal ways of deciding when it *should* be winter and go dormant then, or do they only have a dormant period when the weather is a certain way, so that they're responding to the weather?

Sydney is incredibly mild, and although it gets hot in Summer, it's rare for it to be above 30ºC, so it's not crazy hot in Summer either, but it is very humid.

Hard to know what a season even is in Sydney, they're kind of arbitrary markers for how far we are through the year more than a guide to what plants are doing!

Best advice is observe your plants to see which ones want more or less water and how often. Probably everything overall will need water less frequently for the winter. But if you have enough light and the weather is cool to warm, you can take advantage of good growing conditions all year round.

Most succulents are opportunistic growers.