I have lived in Blackheath in the Blue Mountains for 22 of my 80 years. It's a tranquil place and I'm surrounded by caring people.
The word "community" still applies here, which is good because there have been times when we have all needed to pull together.
I have been reading about the extraordinary temperatures in Europe and the US, including unprecedented bushfires in the Arctic, and it has reminded me of bushfires closer to home.
After being diagnosed with multiple defects of my fifth lumbar vertebra when I was 25, I have had sciatica pretty much my whole life and was forced to give up the nursing work that I loved.
As mobility is an issue for me, when bushfires flare up here, I tend to evacuate early as I'm not much help to anyone.
I have evacuated twice, but there have been many more fires than that.
I remember in 2013, there were fires everywhere and you felt surrounded. It was pretty frightening.
On another occasion, I was listening to community radio to keep track of how the bushfires were progressing while my little weatherboard house was vibrating with the helicopters circling low overhead. It felt like a war zone.
And in some ways we are at war, in a battle for the survival of our planet. Our problem, the burning of fossil fuels, is man-made and the solutions are in our hands.
I get so hot under the collar when the prime minister visits people in the aftermath of natural disasters.
I think, why don't you address climate change first and then you wouldn't sound so hypocritical about trying to help people, such as the farmers suffering from the drought.
I am anxious about what this summer season will bring. Also I am diabetic and have cardiovascular disease, so the intense heat just wipes me out and I'm unable to do anything physical.
I would love to be able to afford solar but even with incentives, the solar panels still have to be installed and that costs money. And people who are renting are largely excluded from the possibility of cheaper, sustainable energy.
Renewable power should be accessible not just for people with money but for those who are vulnerable: the very young, people with chronic health conditions, nursing mothers and the poor.
Climate change is dividing those who can protect themselves from its impacts from those, like me, who are left on the frontline. It has to be stopped.
Gabrielle Byrne, 80, lives in the Blue Mountains
