Disaster Response and Recovery

You can help our teams to be ready this summer.

The Bureau of Meteorology is warning of a hot and dry summer, with fires, heatwaves and drought expected. Our emergency response teams have already been activated after fires hit Western Australia, Victoria and Queensland.

With your support, we can be there when disaster impacted communities need us most. We provide psychosocial support, help in evacuation centres and ensure people have the emotional and practical support they need to cope and recover.

Our climate is changing. Disasters are becoming more frequent and intense. That’s why it’s so important we are ready.

Right now

Our teams are on the ground supporting people impacted by fires across the country.

  • Australian Red Cross continues to work in evacuation and recovery centres across Queensland and Western Australia.
  • Our volunteers are providing psychosocial support to people in Evacuation Centres and via personal support, information, and referrals in community recovery hubs.
  • We are working hard to register and reunite loved ones through our Register.Find.Reunite. service.
  • Australian Red Cross has commenced planning for the long and challenging Recovery journey that many community members are now facing.

Last year, someone in Australia needed our help every 90 seconds.

Here’s what our donors made possible:

324,000+

people supported before, during and after disasters

1,639

staff helped and supported people across 33 emergency activations

4 million+

people accessed information from preparedness campaigns

You have the power to make a difference

$25

can provide a wellbeing check for someone who’s isolated or been through an emergency

$50

can teach a child to prepare their own emergency kit with special and useful items

$150

can help us deliver a door-to-door support service, checking on residents in the aftermath of an emergency

$250

can provide specialised training for a Red Cross team to run an evacuation centre when an emergency strikes

About the Disaster Response and Recovery Fund

Donations to the Disaster Response and Recovery fund power the work of Red Cross emergency teams. This can include:

  • Training and equipping our emergency response teams and volunteers
  • Supporting our work to get communities prepared for disasters
  • Powering our response and recovery work when disasters strike

Our emergency teams are experts in their field. Many of them have lived through emergencies themselves. With your support, we can continue to make sure that no one has to face a disaster alone.

Donations above $2 are tax-deductible in Australia. You will receive a receipt in your name in an email when you donate online.
Australian Red Cross will not deduct more than 10 per cent of money raised to cover essential support costs such as collecting and administrating donations, IT costs and overheads.
In the unlikely event that funds raised exceed the cost of our emergency services work, the excess will be used to support our everyday work with other vulnerable people in Australia.
Thousands of generous people gave in response to the 2019/2020 bushfires. Perhaps you were one of them and already know how grateful we are. Donations to the Disaster Response and Recovery fund before July 2019 have been supporting our response to the Australian Bushfires 2019/20. They are helping people affected by those particular fires: as grants that help them cope with financial hardship, repair their homes and re-establish a safe place to live, and through longer-term recovery programs in each community. See your generosity in action.
All the money raised through the Qld and NSW Floods Appeal and Australia Unites Telethon has been directed to supporting the people and communities impacted by that disaster, as it was intended for. This includes on the ground support in evacuation and recovery centres, cash assistance to over 66,000 households, and our three-year recovery program. See your generosity in action.

Our response to the bushfires is focused on enabling our volunteers and staff to help with evacuations, relief centres and outreach service, and supporting people and communities to recover and to build resilience to disasters. We are not currently providing direct financial assistance to people affected by the current bushfires. For information on financial assistance provided by the Australian Government, please visit disasterassist.gov.au.

Charity donations of $2 or more to Australian Red Cross may be tax deductible in Australia. Site protected by Google Invisible reCAPTCHA. © Australian Red Cross 2023. ABN 50 169 561 394