Frontline voices from Australia’s climate disasters
Across Australia, many frontline communities are carrying a deep sense of betrayal. They are doing everything they can to protect their homes, their families, and each other – while political decisions continue to fuel the very crisis threatening their lives.
That sense of betrayal was captured starkly in court by Anna Hedigan, a Victorian bushfire survivor who took part in the recent Rising Tide “People’s Blockade” at the Port of Newcastle. On 13 January 2026, she appeared in court alongside around 128 other protesters charged over their participation in the blockade. Responding to the continued approval of new coal and gas projects, she told the court it felt as though officials were “standing on every street with a jerry can of petrol” while communities like hers face escalating fire risk.
“My name is Anna Hedigan. I have just driven up from Chutin, which is next to Harcourt. On Friday, we experienced catastrophic fire. My husband fought that fire for two days, along with thousands of others, and the conditions are beyond what I can describe. They are literally selling the future for money. I cannot begin to express how angry I feel about that on behalf of all of the 15,000 volunteers that the Prime Minister so proudly said on Sunday when he visited our area were mobilised against natural disasters this week in Australia. People step forward in Australia, they stand up for what they believe in. However, this needs a government response. The government needs to do system change. It can’t be up to us. We do it. They don’t do it. (…)
To continue to open new projects is like the Prime Minister and his government are standing at the end of every street in Australia with a jerry can of petrol. It is unbelievably irresponsible, given the climate science, to continue to expand fossil fuels.“
Anna Hedigan’s words resonate because they strip away abstraction. For people who have lived through climate-driven disasters, this is not a debate about targets, timelines, or economic modelling. It is about smoke-choked skies that blot out the sun. It is about the scramble to defend homes as embers rain down. It is about the fear of losing everything – with the knowledge that next time is likely to be even worse.
Across Australia, the scale of loss now makes it impossible to describe the climate crisis as a “future threat”. In the most recent bushfire emergency in Victoria alone, more than 500 buildings have been destroyed, including homes and businesses, and at least one person has lost their life as fires burned across vast areas of land.
At the same time, flooding in northern Australia has killed more than 48,000 cattle, wiping out livelihoods and leaving entire communities isolated or evacuated. Beyond the immediate human and ecological toll, the economic damage is severe. Insurers and economists estimate that extreme weather events are now costing Australia tens of billions of dollars each year, through lost productivity, damaged infrastructure, insurance payouts, and long-term impacts on agriculture and housing.
Millions of properties are already classified as being at high or moderate climate risk, and for many households insurance is becoming unaffordable or unavailable altogether. These are are losses already absorbed.
Speaking from the frontlines
Extreme fire weather days have increased in Australia by 56 per cent over the last four decades, according to new research from an international team of scientists, including CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency.
Across the country, more Australians affected by fires, floods, and extreme heat are stepping into public advocacy. Some join local groups pushing for stronger climate action and disaster preparedness. Others participate in civil resistance, seeking to draw attention to the growing disconnect between lived reality and national decision-making.
These actions are often portrayed as disruptive or radical. But from the perspective of those involved, they are acts of necessity. When the systems meant to protect people continue to prioritise fossil fuel expansion, speaking out becomes one of the few remaining ways to be heard.
When disaster survivors speak out, they are not doing so from a position of ideology. They speak from the frontlines of a crisis that has reshaped their lives, from experience etched into memory and place.
“We are doing our part – are you?”
The message coming from frontline communities is strikingly consistent. People are adapting. They are preparing. They are rebuilding. They are learning how to live with risk that should never have become so extreme.
What they are asking for is not special treatment, a few dollars in disaster relief, or temporary mental health support. They are asking for accountability. They want their elected representatives to take responsibility for their failure to act when the urgency was clear, and then get on with the job of mitigating this crisis.
They want the urgency they live with every fire season and flood event to be reflected in the policies that shape Australia’s energy future.
For many, the approval of new coal and gas projects feels fundamentally incompatible with the reality they face on the ground. It sends a signal that their losses, their trauma, and their efforts to adapt are being weighed against short-term vested interests and found expendable.
When decisions so clearly contradict lived reality, and when transparency or logic is absent, many Australians are left wondering what influences are operating behind closed doors, beyond public scrutiny. A growing number suspect that forces not visible to the public are shaping these decisions.
A new moral weight
As climate impacts intensify, the voices of those who have endured them are becoming harder to ignore. Their testimony brings moral weight to a national conversation about responsibility, resilience, and choice. As the climate crisis deepens, these voices will only grow louder. Sooner or later, they will shape elections.
The days when climate emergency warnings felt distant and abstract are over. More and more Australians now carry lived experience of what inaction on climate means – and of what will continue to unfold, with growing ferocity and devastation, unless the gap between policy and lived reality is closed.
Frontline communities are no longer asking whether climate disasters are real. They are asking whether those in power are willing to act as if they are.
→ AAP | Newcastle Weekly – 13 January 2026:
Rising Tide supporter slams government for ‘selling the future’
“An activist who fought to save her home from bushfires has likened the government’s approval of new fossil fuel projects to standing on every street with a jerry can of petrol.”
→ The Guardian – 7 October 2025:
At $4.5bn each year, extreme weather is costing Australia three times as much compared with 1990s, insurers say
“‘The trajectory is only up, in terms of insured costs,’ professor of climate risk warns.”
→ Climate Council – 2025:
At Our Front Door (report – PDF)
PETITION:
→ Farmers for Climate Action – January 2026:
These are the signals of climate change
“Sign the open letter to the Prime Minister, Federal Opposition Leader, State Premiers, State Opposition Leaders and all Members of Parliaments across Australia: We need strong, decisive action to drive down emissions this decade and protect farming families and our food supply. The scale of our collective response must match the scale of the climate challenge.”
“In 2025 we saw climate extremes intensify in ways that directly threaten young people’s health, safety and futures – from extreme heat to worsening fires, floods and air pollution. The science has been clear for years, and now the lived reality is undeniable. (…) Decisions made today about climate pollution will shape the world my generation and the next are forced to live in; yet there is still no law in Australia that requires decision-makers to properly consider the harm their choices cause to children and future generations.”
~ Anjali Sharma, climate activist
“From western Europe’s hottest June ever to extreme marine heatwaves around Australia, the data reveal a climate system under severe stress. (…) Our federal and state governments are still behaving as if a climate change response is less important than propping up our fossil fuel industry, with hugely polluting projects still being approved.”
~ Ian Lowe, emeritus professor at Griffith University
