MELBOURNE, Tuesday 27 January 2026 — New pictures of bushfire impacts, and aerial footage captured solely by Greenpeace Australia Pacific, present gasoline exploration persevering with off the coast of Victoria as bushfires and a record-heatwave bear down on the state.
Greenpeace campaigners and a photographer documented the current bushfires and offshore gasoline operations within the Otway and Gippsland Basins — areas the Victorian and Federal governments have just lately opened up for brand spanking new gasoline exploration permits.
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned the acute heatwave situations will persist into the week resulting in excessive hearth hazard and temperatures near 50 levels Celsius in a number of states.
It comes as new worldwide evaluation discovered the extreme heatwave in south jap Australia in early January, when the Otway fires began, was made 5 occasions extra seemingly by human-caused local weather change.
Joe Rafalowicz, Head of Local weather and Power at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and Surf Coast native, mentioned: “What struck me most flying over the Otways throughout the fires — seeing scorched forest, blackened and lifeless timber with fires nonetheless smouldering close by, adopted by the shock of industrial-scale gasoline drilling gear rising from the ocean — was the worth we’re all paying for the bottomless greed of fossil gas companies.
“Most individuals won’t ever see the gasoline business’s polluting infrastructure out within the ocean — however the presence of a drill rig greater than a soccer area, just like the one we photographed, needs to be ringing alarm bells throughout the nation.
“New gasoline tasks not solely danger our marine life and oceans, however air pollution from burning the gasoline fuels the fires, storms, and floods that destroy lives, decimate wildlife, price our financial system billions, and power communities to rebuild time and time once more.
“In Australia we already produce extra gasoline than we want, but the federal government retains approving new tasks that gas the local weather disaster and its devastating impacts throughout the nation.
“This summer time Australia is burning. Once more. This should be a get up name to the Authorities, who ought to instantly decide to stopping gasoline growth and present it’s dedicated to defending our communities.”
Drew Mcpherson, Nationwide Campaigns Director at Surfrider, mentioned: “It was stunning to see the business in such fantastically uncooked ecosystems that up till very just lately had been thriving, now there’s one of many world’s largest drills ripping by way of the seabed.
“We don’t want extra gasoline, it’s a danger for our oceans, sea life & coastal communities.”
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New footage and pictures for media use out there within the Greenpeace Media Library
Bushfire impacts on native animals and panorama in Victoria, Australia
Aerial footage of offshore gasoline infrastructure in Victoria, Australia
Media contact
Lucy Keller on 0491 135 308 or [email protected]
