Exploring Extreme Heat: Part One

Hot histories - can heatwaves of the past teach us how to adapt to extreme heat?

Earth Matters is embarking on a multi-episode series exploring what intense heat events mean for Australians. 

We’ll be hearing from settler Australians, migrant communities and First Nations people living in different parts of so-called Australia to understand how heat affects us, and whether current adaptation practices are sufficient to equip us for a hotter future.

In Part One we delve into the near past to discover how Australians of European background lived through heatwaves in the 19^th and 20^thcenturies, and what their experiences mean for Australians today.

We hear from settler Australian environmental historians Rochelle Schoff and Mandy Paul who spoke at a History Council of Victoria Making Publc Histories event last year.

The event was convened by Margaret Anderson, manager of the Old Treasury Building in Naarm/Melbourne.

Rochelle Schoff is a La Trobe University PhD Candidate and member of the Parched research project team.

Mandy Paul is a public historian researching the history of heatwaves in Tarntanya/Adelaide and Head of Collections at the History Trust of South Australia.

Historian Rebecca Jones was the third speaker at this event. Her research will be shared in a later episode. 

Thanks to the History Council of Victoria for providing access to the recording of Making Public Histories—Thinking about the weather: Heatwaves and history in twentieth century Australia event held on 27 November 2025. You can watch the full event here.

Note: Statements made by Anangu community members shared by Rochelle Schoff were sourced from the following research paper, Bardsley, D. K., & Wiseman, N. D. (2016). Socio-ecological lessons for the Anthropocene: Learning from the remote Indigenous communities of Central Australia. Anthropocene, 14, 58–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2016.04.001 

Image Credit: State Library of South Australia, B 7798/298.