Latest news
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The Night Walkers Initiative: How our Cool Walks Toolkit can be used in your own community
After the release of Sweltering Cities’ Cool Walks Toolkit, one of our supporters Cherie shared her simple yet incredibly impactful initiative helping people stay connected, active and safe during the hotter months. It is getting increasingly harder during summer to maintain regular physical activity and social connection. While walking in the cooler evening hours can…
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Data Centres, AI, Urban Heat, and Community Action comes together in Western Sydney
We are witnessing a data centre boom all across the globe and increasingly in Australia. Driven by growing demand for AI and digital services, data centres rely on heavy infrastructure and energy-intensive cooling systems. They attract billion-dollar global investment and in NSW, are being moved quickly through planning pipelines. This process has left limited clarity…
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Cool Walks Toolkit: Released Today
Turning local knowledge into cooler, fairer streets As Australian summers become longer and more intense, the way our neighbourhoods are designed is increasingly shaping how safe and comfortable they are to live in. This week, Sweltering Cities is releasing a new resource to help communities take action: the Cool Walks Toolkit. Developed in collaboration with…
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Report Released: Summer Survey 2026
Summer Survey 2026 Reveals Millions Forced to Ration Cooling During Record Heat The Cost of Keeping Cool is Making Australians Sick Sweltering Cities has today released the findings of its 2026 Summer Survey, exposing a national health crisis driven by the rising cost of keeping cool. With data from over 2,600 respondents across 766 postcodes,…
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Heat and Community Solutions in Fremantle: Cool Walk Recap
On Monday 9th of Feb, we held our very first WA Community Cool Walk through a pocket of Fremantle. 14 community members joined us to reflect on the ways in which existing spaces and structures impact the happiness, health and heat-resilience of our communities. Perth was on the tail-end of a series of sweltering…
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Ann, a Darwin local, shares her NT heat story with us.
Even though we all know it is hot in Darwin, do we really understand what it feels like to live through it? Thank you, Ann, for sharing your NT heat experiences with us. Ann grew up in NSW but had visited the Northern Territory a number of times, so it wasn’t all totally new to…
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VIDEO: Hot City, Cool People
An extreme heat awareness event – Parramatta, Sydney Summers in Sydney are getting longer, hotter and more extreme. On 5 Feb 2026, we filled Parramatta Town Hall in Western Sydney for our biggest in person event yet Hot City, Cool People to mark Extreme Heat Awareness Day. Extreme Heat Awareness Day is dedicated to having…
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Extreme Heat Awareness Day 2026: Here’s how it went
On February 4th 2026, we marked the second Extreme Heat Awareness Day. It was the biggest ever national action on heat in Australia, and it happened because of people like you. Launched by Sweltering Cities and the Australian Red Cross, Extreme Heat Awareness Day brings people together for a powerful national conversation about the growing impacts…
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Australia’s biggest community heat survey launches ahead of dangerous 2025–26 summer
Sweltering Cities has today launched the Summer Survey 2026, Australia’s largest community survey on heat, health and homes, calling on people around the country to share their lived experience of rising temperatures and dangerous heatwaves driven by climate change. The survey collects qualitative and quantitative data on how people manage extreme heat; from cost-of-living pressures,…
