MEDIA RELEASE: Bushfires cost Australians $6 billion a year. Prepare now, or pay far more later.

Climate Media Centre

THURSDAY 22 OCTOBER 2026

Bushfires are costing Australia an average of $6 billion a year, according to a new report from Emergency Leaders for Climate Action (ELCA). Over the next 30 years, the bill tops $180 billion.

The modelling, by ConnellGriffin, counts the cost to people's health and wellbeing (32 per cent of the total), lost productivity and damage to public assets. The report also shows that better fire preparation will save thousands of jobs each year.

Climate pollution from burning coal, oil and gas has driven a step change in fire conditions, with two extra weeks of extreme fire danger a year since 1998. The people facing it are stretched. There were 10,336 fewer volunteer firefighters in 2023/24 than four years earlier, and insurance premiums have risen by as much as 400 per cent after major fires, with some properties unable to get bushfire cover at all.

The Climate Media Centre has spokespeople from the farming, medical and bushfire survivor communities available to speak to the report.

Peter Holding, Harden farmer, Rural Fire Service volunteer and Farmers for Climate Action spokesperson, who was awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal in 2019, said: “Our brigade used to have 48 members. Now it’s around 12, and those left are older. We’re asking an ageing, shrinking rural volunteer force to face more violent fire weather, with grass fires travelling faster and less predictably than they did 40 years ago and no one to swap in when a fire drags on. Coal and gas corporations keep adding to the climate pollution making it worse. We can prepare now, or pay far more later.”

Associate Professor Vicki Kotsirilos AM, Medical practitioner of almost 40 years and Doctors for the Environment Australia pollution spokesperson, who has spoken on the health harm of bushfire smoke, said: “As a GP I see what fire seasons do to people’s health mentally and physically long after the flames are out. Air pollution from smoke inhalation is absorbed by the lungs and can reach almost every organ in the body. It is harmful to people’s health. There is no safe level of air pollution. It's no surprise health and wellbeing make up the largest share of healthcare costs due to bushfires. Cutting the climate pollution from burning coal, oil and gas will reduce air pollution and limit how bad these fires get, and preparing communities now costs far less than the harm we pay for later.”

Jan Harris, Co-Chair and co-founder of Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action, who lost her home in the 2018 Tathra bushfire, said: “Bushfires don't end once the flames go out. Even with good insurance it takes years to get back on your feet, and now premiums are climbing so fast that some families can't get cover at all. It is families just like mine who are shouldering the burden of climate change, while coal and gas corporations keep adding to the pollution making these fires worse. Governments can help communities prepare and cut that pollution now, or leave us to keep paying the price.”

Sean Kennedy, Senior Media Advisor, Climate Media Centre, 0447 121 378, [email protected]

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BACKGROUND

The report was commissioned by Emergency Leaders for Climate Action, with economic modelling from ConnellGriffin.
A Black Summer-scale event is estimated at $27.7 billion and is modelled to occur roughly once every 30 years. Other damaging fires are modelled at $1.2 billion a year.
Fire-generated thunderstorms have risen from 20 between 1983 and 2003 to 121 between 2004 and 2024.
Fire seasons across Australia have lengthened by 21 per cent since 1979.
Victoria's worst fires once arrived roughly every 40 years. Three have struck in 18 years.
Almost half of the 14,000 homes lost to bushfire in Australia since 1901 were destroyed after 2001.
Over the same four years, paid firefighting positions grew by only 433, against the loss of 10,336 volunteers.
A scenario where bushfire damage is cut by 10 per cent through better preparation saves $604 million a year.

Contact details:

Sean Kennedy, Senior Media Advisor, Climate Media Centre, 0447 121 378, [email protected]