The month Australia turned into an oven: How people ‘dropped dead’ on the streets during the little-known January 1896 heatwave

As Australia sweltered under a scorching heatwave last weekend, stretching from the western interior to the tropical Queensland coast, many Australians might have believed the country had never before experienced such blistering conditions.

However, history reveals that Australia has faced even more intense heatwaves, including a 24-day heatwave which killed 437 people in Australia in January 1896.

The temperature was above 38 degrees for nearly a month, bushfires raged across the country and, at a time long before air conditioning, exhausted people dropped dead in the streets.

The extreme weather event was described as feeling ‘like a furnace’ and had much higher temperatures than parts of Australia are currently sweltering through.

That year of 1896 got off to a hot start and by January 14, newspapers were reporting people were dying from a range of complications brought on by the extreme temperatures.

By the third week of the year, 12 infants had died from heat-related illnesses in Goulburn, NSW, alone, a report on JoNova about the heatwave revealed.

People were fleeing cities on trains to seek refuge in mountains and hills, but one child escaping the heat ‘died at the moment the train arrived’.

Hospitals were at breaking point, and the death toll was rising.

In Australia, Bureau of Meteorology data found 2024 was the second hottest on record going back to 1910 and the warmest for night time temperatures. Bathers on Bondi Beach are pictured

An extreme Australian heatwave in January 1896 killed over 400 people and hospitalised many more. Wilcannia Hospital is pictured

By January 17 the mercury had climbed to 48.9C in Bourke, in north-west NSW – although there has been some dispute about the accuracy of temperature recordings due to changing methods over time.

‘The hospital is crowded, and a number of people are dangerously ill. More deaths are hourly expected,’ a newspaper article from January 18, 1896 read.

The heat was sending people ‘insane’, leaving them helplessly wandering the streets before collapsing and falling dead.

Cattle died by the hundreds, water tanks dried up and the death toll continued to rise as the heatwave entered its fourth week.

Many children were among those who died in the intense heatwave of 1896

Newspapers (pictured) at the time reported temperatures above 119F (48C)

Trains leaving Sydney’s west for the mountains were packed and the government ran extra services at discount prices for those seeking relief from the heat.

By January 24 the heatwave was declared ‘an unprecedented record’, and the death toll in Bourke alone had reached 35.

‘The residents are really panic-stricken, and hundreds are leaving for cooler climates’, one newspaper report revealed.

Most businesses across NSW had closed their doors by this point, except for hotels, as residents laid low waiting for the weather to cool.

In other parts of the country temperatures had not dropped below 37 degrees since late 1895.

The historic heatwave saw temperatures climb to 49 degrees and forced people to flee to the mountains in search of reprieve. Brewarrina is pictured in 1900

The 1896 heatwave saw people dropping dead in the streets as the stifling heat stretched on for 24 days. In Bourke (seen here in 1893) temperatures were nudging 50C

Almost 130 years on from that traumatic and deadly summer, Australia is now in the peak of a severe weather season, ranging from heatwaves to torrential rain and thunderstorms.

This summer has already been extreme, with a national mean maximum of about 2 degrees above average, after a relatively mild previous summer.

Alice Springs has had an average daily high of 38.6C since the start of December, which is far above its long term mean of just below 36C.

Other parts of central Australia are experiencing even higher temperatures – up to the mid-40s – at the moment.

In Queensland, the coast from from Cooktown to Proserpine is in a run of days of around 35C, with minimums as high as 27C.

Combined with high humidity, it makes for a very uncomfortable time in the region, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) putting parts of tropical east Queensland in the ‘extreme’ heatwave category, indicating dangerous risks to health.

The areas affected include Cairns, Ingham and surrounding areas.

Last year was the hottest year the world has ever recorded, scientists confirmed, with temperatures were 0.12C above 2023, the previous warmest year on record.

In Australia, BoM data found 2024 was the second hottest on record going back to 1910 and the warmest for night time temperatures.

Worldwide, 2024 was the first calendar year on record to exceed 1.5C above the pre-industrial level, and already this summer the national mean maximum has been about 2 degrees above average.

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