Australia, the world’s driest inhabited continent, is particularly vulnerable to climate-related disasters such as droughts, bushfires, storms and floods. In 2020, we were one of the top ten nations in the world for economic damage caused by disasters.
Recent catastrophic climate-linked disasters are etched into our communal psyche. The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, where 173 people died and over 2,000 homes destroyed. The Black Summer bushfires in 2019–20, with 26 deaths and almost 2,500 homes destroyed. The triple La Nina from 2020–2022 caused flooding across the east coast, with last year’s claiming 23 lives and an estimated A$4.8 billion in property damage.
These climate-fueled disasters have immediate health impacts, from injury to distress and trauma. Less is known about the long-term effects on people who survived them.
