What month to start building?

With all the rain we've had recently, I began to think about a concern I had before we started to build - what month/season should you start building? Some may consider this approach rather pedantic, but considering the investment you're making in building your new home, it's something worth considering.

The timing largely depends on the time taken to build, but with the average build (for our builder) taking between 9 - 12 months, it makes sense to do site preparation and footings late spring Oct/Nov. The ground is dry enough to dig footings/pour concrete, but not so dry it's impossible to dig. Assuming everything else goes to plan you should be at lock-up with the roof on late April, before any substantial rain in May/June.

In our case we got a lot of rain in May before the lower roof tiles were laid and we had a lot of water in the house. The water isn't that much of a problem, as I'd read somewhere that the yellow tongue can be submerged for 3 months, but you need it to be thoroughly dry before plastering starts so this did delay our plastering by a few weeks.