There’s a new sound in the smoky air. It’s the Hazards Near Me app notification on my mobile phone, and it’s ringing in a new national approach to disaster warnings.
It has been four years since the 2019-20 bushfires and the Australian landscape is almost as tinder-dry as it was then. There are fires burning across the east coast, including in the northern New South Wales region of New England where I live. I can’t decide whether this new software sounds like the chime of a dull bell or an electronic water droplet from a 1980s video game.
