Grazier neighbours Melanie Shannon and Melinee Leather were sick of seeing the impact climate change was having on their industry and the mental health of their central Queensland community, so they decided to do something about it.
"We all are feeling a bit nervous," Ms Shannon said.
"We are seeing those higher temperatures, more extreme weather events occurring.
"Mental health is certainly at the forefront of the challenges today and it was raised that if you're not in a great headspace, then how were you able to run a business?"
The Barfield Road Group was established in 2019, made up of neighbouring farmers from the Barfield Road area of the Banana Shire, about 170 kilometres west of Gladstone.
"I think what brought us together was we're a like-minded group of producers that really wanted to have a focus around sustainability," Ms Leather said.
"We could see that sustainability for the beef industry was going to be something that was going to be critical for us going forward.
"We were starting to see some really significant changes with the climate, we felt like we were getting hotter and drier… our community had been through some pretty prolonged droughts.
"So, producers really wanted to get together and have a platform where they could share learnings, share information around technology."
Ms Leather said that led to a stronger sense of community.
"If we're educated and we've got support in a collaborative manner, it empowers us to survive these traumatic times, particularly with climate change," she said.
Issues felt across the state
For Peter Whip, it is the uncertainty that comes with intense seasonal changes that plays heaviest on the minds of graziers and farmers.
The Longreach-based grazier and chair of Outback Futures, a not-for-profit mental health support organisation, said keeping strong community connections was vital during tough times, such as drought.
"Even if it doesn't change, our climate is challenging enough," Mr Whip said.
"We've just had eight to 10 years of drought. How much more challenging can you get?"
Large parts of regional and rural Queensland have recently emerged from years of debilitating drought, but the effects are still deeply felt.
Mr Whip regularly travels across the region to educate and equip communities on building resilience during the good and bad times.
He said the geographical and social isolation of living in the outback was sometimes crippling for landowners.
"It's a tough job being in the bush," he said.
"And it's even tougher when you feel like you're doing it on your own."
Wider health impacts of climate change
The potential impacts of climate change on the health sector are much wider than mental health.
According to a report from the Medical Journal of Australia, climate change has "direct and indirect impacts on human health" in multiple ways.
This includes "repeated and prolonged exposure to heat and heatwaves, bushfires and smoke, droughts and floods and changing risk of infectious diseases".
"The increased frequency and intensity of climate extremes have resulted in disrupted health and social services and internal population displacement," the report said.
According to the report, a total of 52,033 people were forcibly displaced by weather-related disasters in Australia in 2020, and that number has been on an upward trajectory since 2008.
Indigenous communities have also been disproportionately affected by the negative health consequences of climate change, even though "the contribution of these communities to greenhouse gas emissions has been minimal".
Cairns-based GP Dr Nicole Sleeman is a member of the group Doctors for the Environment.
"Climate change represents the greatest public health issue of the century and the greatest challenge for health systems," Dr Sleeman said.
She has seen "a lot of heat-related illnesses" during heatwaves in North Queensland, which she said were increasing.
"Heat impacts all of us, even if we are young, fit and healthy," she said.
"However, there are groups in society who are more vulnerable to the impacts of heatwaves, and they include First Nations peoples, the elderly, children, people who have any sort of existing chronic disease like diabetes, heart disease, or kidney disease, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, and also outdoor workers."
She said this was leading to wider flow-on effects across the health system.
"During heat waves up here, there are more ambulance call-outs and — this has been really well documented — more presentations to the emergency department and hospital admissions," Dr Sleeman said.
"We have this increased illness in the community because of the rising temperatures, and we have an increased load on the health system, really much like COVID."
She said the housing crisis was also exacerbating the impacts of heatwaves, due to some people only being able to afford to live in substandard homes that lacked ways to cool down the property.
"If you've got houses that aren't climate resilient … it puts people who are living in housing that are substandard at much more increased risk," she said.
System not prepared
Dr Sleeman said that was why firming up the health system against climate change impacts required investment not only in health resilience, but resilience across the board, to things like housing.
But according to the Medical Journal of Australia, Australia still does not have a national health and climate change adaptation plan, putting it in the minority of countries surveyed by the World Health Organisation in 2021.
"We're not prepared," Dr Sleeman said.
"Australia is very vulnerable to heat and bushfires. So, we're already experiencing it, but we don't have the funds or plan to build a climate resilient health system.
"We need the government to invest in a climate resilient health system."
Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has been contacted for comment.
This story is the final in a series of articles published by ABC regional Queensland teams exploring the impacts and opportunities of climate change in their communities.
