Extreme Heat Awareness Day 2026: Australia needs a heatwave plan

Join Sweltering Cities and Australian Red Cross at this webinar to hear from people delivering frontline support for communities and be part of setting the agenda for a heat-safe Australia.

Co-founded by Australian Red Cross and Sweltering Cities, Extreme Heat Awareness Day raises national awareness about Australia’s deadliest natural hazard: extreme heat. 

At this webinar you'll hear from an incredible panel of speakers about the impact of extreme heat, where people are falling through the cracks, and what a good heat plan looks like for community, organisations, and government.

Speakers include:

Emma Bacon, founder and executive director of Sweltering Cities, will introduce and facilitate the event.

Eilish Maguire is the lead of the Urban Climate Resilience Program (UCRP) at Australian Red Cross. UCRP is a global initiative funded by the Z Zurich Foundation that supports communities to withstand, recover from, and thrive in the face of climate-related disasters. The program is delivered by Australian Red Cross in Western and South Western Sydney, working with communities to strengthen resilience to extreme heat. UCRP is implemented in partnership with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and Zurich Australia.

Jon Swain is the Manager Homelessness at the City of Sydney. Jon oversees direct funding of Specialist Homelessness Services (SHS), service coordination, business and community education, policy design, public space management and coordination of emergency responses. Jon has led Homelessness, Mental Health and Environmental teams at Local, State and NGO level for the past 16 years. Jon’s current focus is developing short- and long-term solutions for people experiencing homelessness against extreme weather events, including the Mobile Cooling Hubs

Dr Susan Heatley is a Project Manager within the School of Public Health, Adelaide University. She is currently managing the Natural Hazards Research Australia funded project Heatwave Resilience & Impacts. Sue has a PhD in Transplant Immunology from the University of Melbourne, a Master of Education (Educational Leadership) and Graduate Certificate in Environmental Management. She has extensive translational research and project management experience through previous roles at the South Australian Health & Medical Research Institute and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service.

Other speakers to be announced soon.

Who should join?
This webinar is for anyone interested in learning about health crisis of rising temperatures and how we can all work together to keep ourselves safe and advocate for solutions. Whether you’ve come to our events in the past, or are new to our work, we'd love to see you there.

Why you should come along
Extreme heat is the deadliest environmental disaster in Australia. It is one of the most urgent challenges communities all across the country are facing. As temperatures rise, and more people are at risk, it's important that we come together to learn about who is most at risk, and the solutions that we can take back to our local communities to keep each other safe and raise awareness.

We hope you will be part of this important conversation. See you online on February 4th!