Australia Weather News

As southern New South Wales experiences its most intense heatwave since the Black Summer of 2019-20, a community-led initiative is being rolled out to help vulnerable residents find relief from the heat.

Community buildings across the Eurobodalla Shire, on the state's far south coast, are opening their doors over the coming days, acting as heatwave havens and offering cool, safe spaces for locals.

Seven out of nine spaces will be open from Thursday until Saturday in Batemans Bay, Narooma and Moruya at varying times, in the first trial of the havens.

The buildings have been retrofitted by the Southcoast Health and Sustainability Alliance (SHASA) with solar panels and batteries, air conditioning, kitchens, and backup generators to ensure they remain operational during extreme conditions and bushfires.

"At the moment in our community, we don't have large shopping centres or many places where people can go to escape heat or smoke," SHASA president Kathryn Maxwell said.

"If we can have lots of smaller facilities around the community, it takes pressure off the big evacuation centres."

Safe havens

Following the experience of the Black Summer bushfires, SHASA worked with local churches, community halls, and surf lifesaving clubs to upgrade facilities by helping them apply for grant funding.

"It's absolutely critical to have solar, batteries, and a backup generator because if the power goes down, you can keep these facilities running," Ms Maxwell said.

"The other key element is air conditioning, which allows for temperature control, and air filters if there is a bushfire."

Julie Brown from Southern Life Church in Moruya said part of the appeal of working with SHASA was the long-term benefits for the facilities, as well as helping the community.

"It's helped us with our bills because we're an independent church," Ms Brown said.

"To have solar is great, especially when our power bills have been high because we run multiple freezers."

The havens will be operated by volunteers, including Ms Brown.

"We're just encouraging people to drop in, even if it's just for a few hours or for all day, have a cuppa with us, get cool," Ms Brown said.

"We can put a movie on, we've got music, we've got colouring in for kids, we've got all those sorts of things that we can at least offer for people to come and take refuge."

Helping the vulnerable

A key goal of the havens is to provide a safe and accessible space for vulnerable residents to shelter from extreme conditions.

Affordable housing resident Kellie Beavis said she became aware of the havens through a post on Facebook.

She said her Moruya villa did not regulate heat well, particularly in such intense temperatures.

"There's heat that gets in through the windows, and there's no relief," Ms Beavis said.

Ms Beavis has air conditioning at home, but is reluctant to use it due to the high cost of electricity.

"I'm still wary of using it because it's expensive," she said.

"The elderly in the community and the people who can't afford the electricity need to know [about these havens]. It's really important that we support people like that."

Ms Maxwell said this week's extreme weather would be a test to help them figure out what their community needed from heat havens in the future. 

"We don't expect it to be totally smooth, we don't expect it to be perfect," she said.

"It's really an opportunity for us to learn."