Latest Australia Headlines
All the headlines from our Australia Topic Page, ordered by recency.
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...
Venice Floods, Australia Wildfires Blamed on Climate Change
Nov 14 2019 // Extreme floods in Venice, fires in Australia and even an outbreak of plague in China have been attributed to climate change this week, while researchers have warned that global warming could saddle future generations with...
Fires Continue to Rage in Australia’s Most Populous State, New South Wales
Nov 13 2019 // Ferocious wildfires were burning at emergency-level intensity across Australia’s most populous state and into Sydney’s suburbs on Tuesday as authorities warned most people in their paths that there was no...
Insurance Council of Australia Declares Catastrophe for New South Wales Bushfires
Nov 12 2019 // The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) on Nov. 9 declared a catastrophe for the bushfires blazing in northern New South Wales. The catastrophe declaration is for communities on the mid-north coast affected by bushfires...
Australia Braces for Another Week of Devastating Bushfires
Nov 12 2019 // Australia is bracing for another week of devastating bushfires, with swaths of the eastern seaboard and even areas of greater Sydney facing a “catastrophic” threat that’s unprecedented at this time of...
Australia’s Pro-Coal Prime Minister Signals War on Climate Change Activists
Nov 1 2019 // Radical. Extreme. Anarchists: Scott Morrison’s choice of language Friday made it clear how he views some environmental protesters. Now the Australian prime minister is signaling he will legislate to stymie what he...
