Smoke, heat and smog: Living with climate anxiety in Melbourne’s bushfire belt

Kilsyth mother Alyssa Wormald can vividly recall the fear she felt looking at the “dome of flames” that engulfed the bushland through the Montrose region last March.

Starting at Montrose’s Dr Ken Leversha Reserve, the fire eventually tore through about 40 hectares, destroying one home and significantly damaging two others.

And for families living in Melbourne’s eastern bushfire fringe, like in the Dandenong Ranges, the fear of potential fire is no longer the rare event it once was. 

Ranges on the risk: The Dandenong Ranges has the highest bushfire risk in the Greater Melbourne region, with a greater than 50 percent chance of encountering weather that could support a significant wildfire.

• Due to the collection of fuel due to recent storms, steep terrain and limited escape routes, the fire risk in these areas recently reached as high as 92 percent.

• In a 2013 State Government report, projections found that the number of days with very high or severe Forest Fire Danger Index ratings were likely to increase by 15 to 70 percent by 2050.

What comes next: Wormald says every whiff of smoke – or the news of an extreme heat warning – brings back feelings of fear. She says the country’s increasingly hot temperatures and changing climate set her up as a classic case for climate anxiety. 

In eastern Melbourne, where many live among the native bush or at the foothills of the Dandenong, she’s not alone.

Health pressures: Of course, the impact of living around, or experiencing, a bushfire is not just mental.

Associate Professor and Doctors for the Environment Australia pollution spokesperson Vicki Kotsirilos AM said air pollutants like bushfire smoke can enter the bloodstream and impact almost every organ in the body, including the brain.

• “There is no safe level of air pollution and the exposure to emissions…places adults and children at higher risk of premature death,” Kotsirilos told the Eastern Melburnian.

Rising fear: Having worked as a GP for almost 40 years, Kotsirilos said patients coming in with “climate anxiety”, especially younger patients, was “really common”.

• “What I usually say to my patients when they come in feeling anxiety and relating it to climate is that we still have to cope,” said Kotsirilos. “There is actually a level of hope.”

What can we do? Kotsirilos said small efforts to reduce one’s own pollution output can help with general feelings of anxiousness. Even things unrelated to the extreme risk of bushfire, like reducing the number of cars you use and prioritising public transport or planting more trees can help.

• “Whether you believe in climate change or not, it doesn't matter — we all deserve to breathe clean air,” said Kotsirilos.

More heat on the way: A recent study from the World Weather Attribution found Australia’s extreme heat events have become more frequent and more intense due to human-induced climate change. The National Climate Risk Assessment, released last year, shows the number of extreme heat days in the country will increase from four to 18 days a year if no drastic action is taken.

• Melbourne experienced an average of five extreme heat days – above 37 degrees – per year from 2003 to 2022. This year, in January alone, the city has experienced four days above 37 degrees – with three of them being above 40.

Local risks: Despite the risks, families continue to move into and remain in Melbourne’s lush eastern suburbs.

Wormald said life in the east can often be a matter of simple economics: “To get away from bushfire, you need to go more urban,” she said, “but to be able to afford a property, you need to go more rural.”

Raising a family in Kilsyth, Wormald’s two-year-old son was born prematurely and has had ongoing lung problems. It’s something she thinks about constantly when considering the impact fire – and the smoke it causes – might have on her loved ones.

But the way forward is not clear: “I don't know if my kids are going to be able to have kids,” she said, “because I don't know what sort of a planet is going to be around for them.

How can we hope? It’s easy to feel bombarded with images of natural disasters close to home or across the globe. A 2024 Climate Council study found more than three quarters of

Australians were worried about climate change.

However, a number of steps, locally or otherwise, show positive results, including:

• Monash Council becoming carbon neutral several years ahead of its original target;

• Renewables supplying close to 50 percent of Australia's electricity in the last quarter of 2025;

• More than 30 percent of Victorian homes installing solar panels;

• More than 156,000 gas appliances in Victoria upgraded to electric alternatives via the State Government’s Gas Substitution Roadmap.

It’s these facts – the more local the better – that can demonstrate the small changes being made to adapt to a rapidly approaching future. 

Image Credit: Heinz van Jaarsveld