Hundreds of nude swimmers celebrate winter solstice in Australia

Hundreds of nude swimmers braved the icy waters of Tasmania in Australia to mark the winter solstice in stark contrast to the summer celebrations at Stonehenge.

As the sun rose over Hobart on Monday after the longest and darkest night in Australia, 752 skinny dippers bravely plunged into the 11 degrees celsius waters of the River Derwent.

And with frost on the ground, a biting air temperature of one degree and an apparent temperature of minus-five degrees celsius, swimmers may well have been warmer in the water, than out.

As well as celebrating the winter solstice, the Dark Mofo Nude Solstice Swim is part of the Dark Mofo arts festival, organised by the Museum of Old and New Art, which described the dip - for adults only - as "a bracing start to a new year".

"This 18+ participatory event is not a spectator sport," MONA stressed. "It is a genuine celebration - a symbolic purification - to signify a turning back towards the light as the shadows of Dark Mofo wane for another year."