Australian Higher Risk Weather Season: tips to prepare and stay safe

Australians face a difficult disaster season every summer. Bushfires, floods, cyclones and heatwaves have a massive impact on our way of life, particularly in rural and regional Australia – and with an El Niño tipped to occur over the 2026-2027 disaster season, we're expecting a hot summer.

We want to help Australians stay safe and enjoy the best of this summer while preparing for the worst. We're sharing some important information on what we’re doing to help you stay connected when it matters most, along with some tips, advice and things you should know as we head into the hot months.

Australian Disaster season: tips to get ready

Staying connected is important in moments of disaster. Whether you're in a bushfire-prone area, live in a town susceptible to flooding, or at risk of another disaster, staying connected is crucial to staying safe.

General tips for staying connected during a disaster

Staying connected during a disaster is important. Here are our seven tips:

• Keep your software up to date and a charged mobile device available. Software is routinely updated to fix bugs and improve emergency calling reliability and network compatibility. We recommend turning on automatic software updates so you are always up to date. Learn more about updating phone software.
• Write down emergency numbers. Know who you should call when disaster strikes. Keep numbers for emergency services saved on your phone or written down.
• Have a Plan B. Talk to family and neighbours about how you’d contact each other if usual communications arrangements are disrupted. Use a landline phone or public phone, if available, or connect to WiFi and use WiFi calling on your device.
• Get a portable battery or generator. Ensure you have a portable phone battery pack, portable generator or both that you can use to recharge your phone and essential devices in case they run out of charge.
• Back-up any data on your devices. Make sure that photos, videos, messages and data can be accessed via a cloud back-up or local storage back-up in case the data or device gets lost.
• Check before you buy an older phone or one from overseas. Not all phones from other countries are configured for Australian networks, which means they may not be able to call Emergency Services in all circumstances. Older or refurbished phones may also not have the latest technology and may not be able to call Emergency Services in all circumstances.
• Stay informed. Listen to your local emergency broadcaster and check the Optus network outage page for disruptions in your area.

Australia's National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) recommends that Australians have plans in place for disasters like bushfires, floods, severe storms, heatwaves, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides and tsunamis. NEMA can direct you to relevant disaster preparedness resources based on your state or territory.

We recommend reading up on essential information specific to your state and territory.

How Optus powers communities during natural disasters

We’re focused on keeping you connected during bushfires, floods and other disasters. We're always working to keep our services and network online:

• All Optus mobile towers have a battery back-up that keeps customers connected for a period of time during power outages.
• Optus field techs have generators at their disposal to restore power to mobile sites during extended power outages once it is safe to do so.
• Optus has a suite of emergency network tools, such as SatCats, Cell on Wheels and fly away kits that we can deploy to provide mobile coverage in areas where mobile infrastructure is damaged.

Additionally, Temporary Disaster Roaming (TDR) is a capability that may allow your phone to connect to another available mobile network during a natural disaster in some regional and rural areas across Australia. This may activate when your usual network isn’t working, provided the alternative network can safely support the additional demand. Where TDR is available, it may allow you to make essential calls, send and receive text messages, and access basic data for critical websites and apps. For more information, visit the TDR webpage on the ATA website.

We’re always looking to improve our response to disasters. Over the 2026 financial year, we made strong investments and continued to work with industry leaders on improving our network for when disasters strike.

We also scaled up our deployment of portable generators to restore power during outages, and installed more permanent generators at essential mobile sites in disaster-prone, remote or difficult to access areas.

Stay safe this disaster season

Optus is focused on keeping you connected. Remember to follow the advice of emergency authorities and prepare for the worst. If disaster strikes and you need help, call Triple Zero (000).