The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season began with several serious uncontrolled fires in June 2019. Hundreds of fires have been or are still burning, mainly in the southeast of the country. As of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares, destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. It was estimated on 8 January 2020 that more than one billion animals were killed by bushfires in Australia, while more than 800 million ...

The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season began with several serious uncontrolled fires in June 2019. Hundreds of fires have been or are still burning, mainly in the southeast of the country.

As of 14 January 2020, fires this season have burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares, destroyed over 5,900 buildings (including 2,779 homes) and killed at least 34 people. It was estimated on 8 January 2020 that more than one billion animals were killed by bushfires in Australia, while more than 800 million animals perished in New South Wales. Ecologists feared some endangered species were driven to extinction by the fires. The loss of an estimated 8,000 koalas caused concerns. Fire also damaged 500-year-old rock art at Anaiwan in northern New South Wales, with the intense and rapid temperature change of the fires cracking the granite rock. This caused panels of art to fracture and fall off the huge boulders that contain the galleries of art. At the Budj Bim heritage areas in Victoria the Gunditjmara people reported that when they inspected the site after fires moved across it, they found ancient channels and ponds that were newly visible after the fires burned much of the vegetation off the landscape. Air quality has dropped to hazardous levels. The cost of dealing with the bushfires is expected to exceed the 4.4 billion Australia dollar of the 2009 Black Saturday fires, and tourism sector revenues have fallen more than 1 billion Australia dollar. By 7 January 2020, the smoke had moved approximately 11,000 kilometres across the South Pacific Ocean to Chile and Argentina. As of 2 January 2020, NASA estimated that 306 million tonnes of CO2 was emitted. What is more, several firefighters – called firies in Australia – were killed or injured. Many firefighters were volunteers and laid-off fire management staffs asked to go back to work without pay.

As with all disasters and large-scale emergencies, it is most effective to donate money to groups already engaged and coordinating on the ground at the disaster site. They often have the ability to take that monetary donation and double or triple its value through their local partnerships. Do not donate hard goods such as clothing, food and water, medications or other items unless there is a specific request from an organization already working in Australia. Organizations engaged in this disaster are already stretched beyond their capacity and they are unable to effectively receive, sort or distribute donated goods at this time.