It's just the beginning of 2024 and already extreme heat, flash flooding and tropical cyclones have dominated headlines.
Often described as the country of "extremes" when it comes to weather in Australia, it's most acutely felt by those in the regions.
On the front line of bushfires, floods, and supercell storms, communities living on the "front line" of climate change in Australia can tell you a thing or two about heartache and loss.
But teenagers from Coffs Harbour to Fitzroy Crossing are instead looking ahead to prepare for the next natural disaster and advocate for their community's future.
Lessons learnt from Black Summer
Spedding Pearce was about to enter year 9 when he and his family's farm became surrounded by a fast and unpredictable bushfire.
In Adelong, an hour from Wagga Wagga, in January 2020, the scorching sun turned the land into a tinderbox.
The devastation was extraordinary: 19 million hectares, billions of native animals and more than 3,000 homes were lost.
The community fought the Dunns Road bushfire for weeks until, eventually, for his, and his Mum's safety, they had to leave their Dad there to fight the fire.
It's been four years of a lengthy journey involving personal and property recovery.
Sped's pragmatism and maturity shine through when he speaks of how his family has adapted.
The lesson he's learnt is to always be prepared.
"We've done the work to make sure we're prepared and ready [for future events]," he said.
"We're making sure the trucks are up to scratch and the water tanks are full.
"We've planted a lot more trees that will ease the fire if it comes again."
Katitza Marinkovic Chavez is a research fellow at the Disasters, Climate Change and Adversity Unit at Melbourne University.
She said young people are more proactive about natural disasters because they were exposed to them early in life.
"In response what we've seen is a really high motivation to get engaged in disaster preparedness, to making their communities more resilient to disasters and drawing from their personal experiences when they have been directly affected to help other people," she said.
"Young people are actively transforming their everyday routines to develop more sustainable lifestyles."
Spedding thinks the lessons he learned can help others.
"I think there's plenty of fire stories and everyone says it was brutal, disgusting and terrible," he said. "But what was important for us was how we came out of it."
Now 18 and ready to embark on a gap year up north as a jackaroo, he said that summer taught him a lot about resilience.
And ultimately, safety comes first.
"I think instead of worrying about what has happened and how it's affected us, it's more about how are we going to resolve it," he said.
"How are we going to push past what is going on and move to a better place."
A 'light bulb moment'
The anxiety of Maya Farmer's year 10 English exam took a back seat as she watched hail the size of golf balls fall onto her school.
The sound was deafening, like a plane landing overhead.
The "supercell" hailstorm that struck Sawtell and Toormina in October 2021 damaged hundreds of homes and left dozens uninhabitable.
The disaster was a light bulb moment for Maya.
"That was the moment I realised we need to take action," she said.
"I can't just keep waiting around and waiting for people to do something when that hasn't been happening.
Loading..."This is climate change."
While there is no evidence that that particular storm was a direct result of climate change, it came at the end of a series of natural disasters that punctuated almost every year of Maya's high school life.
It got her thinking of the planet's future.
Maya joined the School Strike 4 Climate movement not long after and says it's been a powerful way to channel her climate anxiety into action.
"Action is one of the most important things you can do with anxiety," she said.
"[I've been] Realising that it is important to facilitate not just the protests but your feelings and feeling hopeful instead of hopeless and empowered instead of powerless."
The now 18-year-old speaks about her passion for a better climate with conviction.
She said climate activism doesn't have to be all "doom and gloom".
"I think in order to combat that issue it's about presenting bad news with positive endings.
"So telling stories that highlight the consequences of climate change but also that there is still time and there is so much we can do to mitigate the crisis as much as possible.
"The fires, floods and storms felt relentless," she said. "But so am I."
Hannah Feldman is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Water Futures and School of Cybernetics at ANU.
Her PhD research investigated how young people engage with a changing climate through political action.
She said she is constantly blown away by the way young people are becoming advocates for their climate future.
"There's this no-nonsense from the young people I speak to," she said.
"[They're] engaging in sophisticated forms of activism. There's a level of maturity and drive to engage that we haven't seen from older generations.
"It's really inspiring."
Dr Feldman said climate activism is changing as people start to shift away from wanting to engage in classical forms of what it means to be politically engaged.
"Rather than dwelling, the young people I speak to there's a bit of ... well we've got to do something," she said.
"They're using frustration and anger as useful tools."
The 'inland island'
Almost 5,000 kilometres north in Fitzroy Crossing, disaster recovery is still underway for Kimberly's community after the early 2023 floods.
"While we're still busy rebuilding, we're also waiting for the build-up to the next big wet season," she said.
In Fitzroy Crossing, where the river flows close to town, the wet season is an exciting beginning to the new year.
But it was different this time, as the rain kept pouring.
At its highest, the Fitzroy River reached 15.81 metres.
Kimberly recalls steering a boat down a road once filled with cars.
"I felt stuck," she said.
"Being trapped on an inland island with no roads in or out isn't fun."
She said it was a wake-up call.
"You sit there and read about the floods everywhere else and think it won't be that bad and then... it's here," she said.
"It makes me anxious that we're not 100 per cent recovered," she said.
Kimberly wants to share her perspective on the floods so regional Australia isn't overlooked.
While the bridge across the river that was destroyed has been replaced, many are still living in temporary housing and waiting for safeguards to be put in place to prevent future devastation.
"You see photos and whatnot but people don't have the intel about what's going on and what it's like for [remote] communities to go through a flood like that," she said.
"As I'm older it's shown me that everyone is really connected to the land and cultural inheritance here," she said.
"I want people to know what it's been like."
But she wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
"I work at an aged care facility here, and the staff and residents have become family.
"[During that time] I still got to continue looking after vulnerable people in the community, just making it the best I can for them.
"I love living here."
Dr Marinkovic Chavez said it's vital that young people share their lived experiences in a way that promotes hope.
"I think there needs to be more of a shift away from seeing young people as passive victims or adults in the making," she said.
"And shifting them toward seeing young people as unique individuals who have extremely valued lived experiences who are already making immense contributions to the climate change space.
"So we need to provide spaces [where] they can be heard."
A connected community
The summer of 2019/2020 changed everything for Lara Thicknell.
When school broke up for the year, fire trucks and radio alarms quickly replaced the sound of the school bell.
In her town of Swan Reach in East Gippsland, a blanket of thick, unforgiving black smoke covered the sky for three months.
"Everyone was just so burnt out and tired of dealing with it," she said.
She said it was the first time the changing climate came to the forefront of her mind
The East Gippsland bushfire charred more than 320,000 hectares of land, believed to be started by lightning strikes.
One person died.
"We can recognise it more and realise what's happening isn't normal," she said.
"So we don't really have a choice not to deal with it, it's just what's happening and take it day by day and make sure you're prepared for all scenarios."
When Lara speaks of the natural disaster's effects on her community, she tempers it with positive stories that emerge from that surreal summer.
Despite the grief and anxiety of that time, what she remembers the most is a new feeling of connection with her community.
"There were people cooking meals, donating toys and clothes and I'd never really seen that happen," she said.
"It was new to our area, we had always been a close little community, everyone knows everyone but we'd never been forced into that real connectedness.
"I was full of pride for my community."
If another disaster hits Swan Reach, Lara knows her whole community will face it together.
"We know the warning signs now, how to help and who to turn to," she said.
"But if bigger, hotter, more frequent fires are what we will face, then there's no other community I would rather face them with."