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CANBERRA - As a continuing heatwave yesterday drove temperatures across southeastern Australia to more than 40C, the nation was warned that even worse lies ahead.
The present furnace has emergency services on high alert for a threat of fires as potentially devastating as the 1983 Ash Wednesday disaster that killed 75 people in Victoria and South Australia.
But new reports warn of far wider dangers as climate change overtakes the continent, raising temperatures by as much as 3C in the north and centre, creating new dangers for human health, increasing the risk of natural disasters, and spreading mosquito-borne and other diseases.
The federal Government this week announced a A$10 million ($12.6 million) programme to research the human health impacts of climate change.
After a decade of drought across much of the country, the heatwave gripping the southeast is giving Australia a foretaste of what may lie ahead.
In South Australia, Adelaide was late yesterday scorched by 45.5C heat, the city's hottest day in 70 years - and with another four days above 40C predicted by the Bureau of Meteorology.
Across the state similar temperatures were reached at Keith, southeast of Adelaide, Ceduna and Whyalla, with many other centres exceeding 40C.
The heat forced Thoroughbred Racing Australia to cancel a meeting at Gawler, near Adelaide, and firefighters were late yesterday fighting to contain a large grass and stubble fire on Kangaroo Island. Total fire bans are in place across the state.
In Melbourne, at least three people were treated for heat stress. At the tennis open the centre court roof was closed and action on the outer courts was suspended as the centre of the city baked in temperatures that reached 42C.
More than 40 suburban train services were cancelled, amid reports that some lines had buckled in the heat. Temperatures today are forecast to reach 43C, with no relief for several days in the city's worst heatwave in a century.
More than 20 centres across Victoria recorded temperatures of more than 40C - reaching 43C at Dartmoor, southwest of Melbourne, and 42C in the rural town of Horsham - and firefighters were called to several grass and bush fires.
Late yesterday afternoon residents of McCrae, on Mornington Peninsula, were warned to prepare for a grass and scrub fire of "intense heat" heading their way.
Although New South Wales was cooler, Ivanhoe in the far west reached 43C and firefighters battled 12 outbreaks - including a blaze that has so far destroyed more than 1300ha of Budawang State Forest on the far south coast.
While the nation sweltered, the National Rural Health Alliance warned of more to come as climate change threatened the nation's economic base, increased the incidence of disease and the frequency and severity of disasters.
Alliance chairwoman Dr Jenny May said research predicted that the incidence of extreme events such as heatwaves, droughts, floods, cyclones and landslides would increase.
This would hit agriculture, mining, biodiversity and environmental security, she said.
Climate change would change the distribution of vector-borne diseases - such as Ross River and Barmah Forest viral infections - and food-borne diseases.
It would also affect daily mortality and hospitalisation rates, emergency department visits and the use of ambulance services.
May said research reported in the Medical Journal of Australia further warned that Aborigines would feel the impact of climate change more than other Australians because of their close ties to the land and environment.
She said this research warned that temperatures in the tropical north and interior were expected to rise by 3C by 2050, increasing the urgency of the need for improved Aboriginal health and housing.
"Indigenous Australians generally suffer poorer health than the wider population, including cardiovascular and respiratory disease, which makes them particularly vulnerable," May said.
