SYDNEY: As nature’s fury wreaked havoc across Australia, reducing to ashes all that came in its way — people, flora, fauna, picturesque historic towns and villages once popular with local and overseas tourists — it was unlike anything the country had witnessed before. The staggering scale and intensity of the devastation could best be summed up as apocalyptic.

Bushfires, not uncommon in Australia’s vast woodland, scrub or grassland areas, started early in September with summer still a few months away (December to February), igniting a fresh debate on the country’s woeful record on climate change. The year 2019 was the country’s driest and hottest on record with the temperature reaching 1.52 degrees Celsius © above the long-term average.