Essay by Eric Worrall
Preparing for the climate apocalypse…
Australians are moving to Tasmania to escape climate change, but the island state is not immune
By Sophie Jaggers
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Jack Taylor can still vividly remember the day when the air around him became too hot to breathe.
It was early afternoon and he was working as a tradie on a humid Queensland work site.
“It was 1:30pm — still a couple of hours to go — and the foreman just said ‘bugger this, it can’t be done’,” Mr Taylor said
“I remember coming home and recounting what my experience was and how odd it was to feel like you couldn’t breathe, you were just sweating so profusely.
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Last month, Mr Taylor and his partner Anna Graham packed up their bags on the Sunshine Coast and moved to a small community in southern Tasmania.
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The ABC issued a callout for people who have recently moved to Tasmania due to climate change impacts.
Here are a few of the responses:
“We moved to Tasmania after building our dream house in Esperance, WA and suffered through what seemed an endless drought, and non-stop bushfire all within close vicinity of the property. We couldn’t take it any longer and moved back to Tasmania for the climate” — Andrew, Launceston
“We moved from SE Qld here for a few reasons but also concerns over rising global heating. A cool, wet temperate climate sounded rational, but even up here in a cold, wet, forested mountain valley we’ve learned in the 7 years we’ve been here that we are well and truly on the frontlines of climate change” — Ben, Northern Tasmania
“I moved to Hobart from Brisbane due to repeated heatwaves and floods. I ran a business in QLD and was willing to start again down here” — Edward, Howrah
“The job market in Tasmania is nowhere like the other big cities in Australia. The struggle is real, but life in QLD over the last decade in summer has become unbearable. I don’t regret my choices” — Anna, Huonville
“We were sick of being hostages to air conditioning, going from home to work or shopping centres, unable to enjoy the outdoors for 8 months of the year” — Anne, Geeveston
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Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-09-24/australians-moving-to-tasmania-to-escape-climate-change/105785996
Tasmania is beautiful.
My cousin migrated from Queensland to Tasmania, he moved to Hobart around 30 years ago, and fell in love with his new home.
When we visited Tasmania in December 2023, temperatures in the lowlands were in the low 80s, the sun was shining, and the views were magnificent.
But the week we visited, all the locals were talking about the unusual heatwave.
Despite this “heatwave”, we still needed long trousers, especially in the morning and the evening. The top of Mount Wellington which touches the state capital Hobart, even in the middle of a Summer heatwave, was freezing cold – near frost temperature.
Most of the time the weather in Tasmania is not as pleasant as when we visited. Tasmania has a lot of cold and rainy weather. The Tasmanian highlands are bitterly cold, even in the middle of Summer – despite being in a “heatwave”, we hit snow flurries on the highlands road back to Deloraine where we were staying, after visiting my cousin in Hobart.
Last year saw some hot weather in Queensland – but most Queenslanders stayed put in Queensland. The population of Queensland is growing faster than the population of Tasmania, because the weather is better. Just today I met a recent arrival from the Blue Mountains near Sydney – she fell in love with Queensland’s near perpetual beach weather on a holiday, and decided to make Queensland her home.
So despite the ABC’s attempt to make it look like climate change is driving a demographic shift to colder states, this is no more happening in Australia than it is in the USA. Warm lifestyle states like Queensland and Florida both enjoy strong population growth, and will continue to be a favourite destination for the foreseeable future.