Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Update: The Escalating Costs of Australia’s Wildfire Disaster
Jan 3 2020 // Australia is in the grip of deadly wildfires burning across the country, triggering an emotive debate about the impact of climate change in the world’s driest-inhabited continent. The unprecedented scale of the...
Australia Breaks Records for High Temperatures, Low Rainfall as Wildfires Keep Raging
Jan 2 2020 // As massive wildfires devastate swathes of Australia and supercharge the debate over the impact of climate change, government data show the nation has never suffered a hotter or drier year than 2019. The average temperature...
Australia’s Wildfire Crisis Intensifies as Locals, Tourists Seek Refuge on Beaches
Dec 31 2019 // Australia’s wildfire crisis intensified on Tuesday as coastal towns across the southeast caught ablaze, forcing thousands of stranded tourists and locals to seek refuge on beaches. Thick black smoke billowing from...
Thousands of Tourists Evacuated as Wildfires Sweep Through Southeast Australia
Dec 30 2019 // Thousands of holiday-makers have evacuated a popular tourist spot in southeast Australia as a heatwave and strong winds fuel wildfires sweeping through the region. But with temperatures hitting 40 degrees Celsius (104...
Insured Property Losses for December 2018 Sydney Hailstorms Rise to A$798M: PERILS
Dec 27 2019 // The fourth and final insured property loss estimate for the hailstorms that hit the greater Sydney region in December 2018 rose to A$798 million ($553.2 million), according to PERILS, the independent Zurich-based...
Australia’s Bushfires Destroy Nearly 200 Homes, Claim Another Life
Dec 23 2019 // Australia’s devastating wildfires, which at the weekend destroyed close to 200 homes and claimed another life, show no sign of abating and are poised to blight Christmas celebrations. Around 200 blazes were burning...
Insured Losses in 2019 Estimated at $56B, Down from $93B Last Year: Swiss Re
Dec 20 2019 // Global insured losses in 2019 dropped to an estimated US$56 billion, from US$93 billion in 2018 and below the annual average (US$75 billion) of the previous 10 years, according to preliminary sigma estimates from Swiss Re...
Heatwave Gripping Australia Exacerbates Devastating Bushfires
Dec 19 2019 // Australia’s most-populous state has declared an emergency as a heatwave that’s produced the hottest day on record exacerbates devastating bushfires. New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned of extreme...
There’s a 60,000-Year-Old Method to Help Battle Australia’s Bushfires
Dec 17 2019 // Australia’s indigenous people say the bushfire-ravaged country is paying the price for ignoring their expertise in managing the ecology of the world’s-driest inhabited continent. The fires have already burned...
Venice Floods, Australia Bushfires, India Cyclone Top November Catastrophes
Dec 11 2019 // Flooding and inland storms led to multi-billion-dollar economic loss in western and southern Europe during November, according to insurance broker Aon’s latest edition of its monthly Global Catastrophe Recap...
8 People Presumed Dead After New Zealand Island Volcano Eruption
Dec 9 2019 // Eight people were missing and presumed dead on Tuesday after a volcanic eruption covered a small New Zealand island popular with tourists in hot ash and steam, killing five people and seriously injuring about 30...
Australia’s Bushfires Push Choking Haze over Sydney
Dec 5 2019 // Sydney is world famous for its shimmering harbor and clear blue skies. Not this summer. As bushfires ravage the country’s east coast, pollution is becoming a regular occurrence in Australia’s biggest city...
Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Acquires Australia’s Blueleaf Consulting
Dec 5 2019 // Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., the Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based broker, announced the acquisition of North Sydney, New South Wales, Australia-based Blueleaf Consulting Pty Ltd. Terms of the transaction were not...
Westpac’s Money Laundering Breaches Gave ‘Free Pass to Pedophiles:’ Australia Official
Nov 25 2019 // Australian Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said Westpac Banking Corp. must pay the price for giving “a free pass to pedophiles” as the corporate watchdog began investigating the lender over millions of...
Australia’s Westpac Bank Apologizes for Money Laundering, Links to Child Abuse Funds
Nov 22 2019 // Westpac Banking Corp.’s board stood behind its management team on Friday, offering embattled chief executive Brian Hartzer some respite from mounting criticism over allegations of a breach of money-laundering laws,...
Australia Court Rules Against Johnson & Johnson in Pelvic Mesh Class Action
Nov 21 2019 // More than 1,350 Australian women won a seven-year-old class action lawsuit on Thursday against Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for misleading patients and surgeons about the risks of the pharmaceutical giant’s pelvic...
Sydney Shrouded in Smoke as Bushfires Continue to Spread in Eastern Australia
Nov 21 2019 // Sydney was shrouded by smoke for a second time this week on Thursday as bushfires continued to rage along Australia’s eastern seaboard. Early morning commuters in the city center were faced with an acrid haze that...
Judge to Decide J&J Vaginal Mesh Lawsuit in Australia
Nov 20 2019 // An Australian judge will rule this week whether Johnson & Johnson hid the risks of its vaginal-mesh products and damaged the organs of women, in the latest ruling in worldwide litigation against the U.S. company over...
Australia Warned to Expect More Fire Tornadoes
Nov 19 2019 // Fire tornadoes are set to become a more common feature of the Australian landscape as climate change takes hold later this century. That’s according to new research from the University of New South Wales’s...
Australia Wildfires Continue to Rage, Destroying Homes, Forcing Evacuations
Nov 14 2019 // Scores of wildfires continued to rage across vast tracts of Australia’s drought-stricken east coast on Wednesday, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate their homes, some for the second time in a week. The most...
