Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Climate Scientists Warn that Australia’s Bushfires Could Become the New Normal
Jan 14 2020 // Bushfires ravaging Australia have provided a foretaste of the kinds of conditions that could become normal unless the world moves rapidly to curb emissions of the greenhouse gases driving global warming, scientists have...
Australia’s Bushfires Could Surpass 2009’s Costly Season; Analysts, Insurers Comment
Jan 10 2020 // Australia’s bushfire season has months to run and could easily surpass the most costly fire season, 2009’s Black Saturday fires in Victoria, which had a price tag of an estimated A$4.4 billion (US$3 billion),...
Australians Evacuate Their Homes as Soaring Temperatures, Winds Fan Bushfires
Jan 10 2020 // Australia urged nearly a quarter of a million people to evacuate their homes on Friday and prepared military backup as authorities said the next few hours could be “very, very challenging” even as rain poured...
Insurance Industry Calls for Action to Mitigate Climate Risk as Australia Bushfires Widen
Jan 8 2020 // As the devastation from Australia’s bushfires widens, the insurance industry is calling for concerted action to mitigate the impact of climate change. Months of out-of-control fires have burnt an area more than five...
Update: Australia’s Firefighters Take Advantage of Cooler Weather to Help Quell Wildfires
Jan 7 2020 // Firefighters are taking advantage of cooler weather to quell southeastern Australia’s wildfires that have killed at least 24 people and prompted stirring messages from stars at the Golden Globes. Some 130 blazes...
Australia Sees No End to Unprecedented Wildfire Crisis
Jan 6 2020 // Exhausted firefighters welcomed cooler weather and patchy rain in blaze-ravaged southeastern Australia Monday after a calamitous few days, even as authorities warn of a return to dangerous conditions later this week. With...
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...
