‘What’s more important, the electricity or food?’: extreme heat is driving up power bills in central Australia

‘We almost had 40 days over 40’ … Vanessa Napaltjari Davis with her great-grandson outside their home in Nyewente town camp in Alice Springs. Photograph: Rhett Hammerton/The Guardian

Since the start of summer, Vanessa Napaltjari Davis and her grandchildren have sweltered in their two-bedroom home. Temperatures in the southern half of the Northern Territory have been well above average and the electricity running their single air-conditioner has been regularly disconnected.

“We almost had 40 days over 40,” she says. “I was struggling to keep on top of the power bill and keep my little grannies [grandchildren] cool.”