Our thoughts and sympathies are with families and communities affected by the unprecedented bushfires in NSW, and our sincere thanks go to the emergency services who continue to battle the bushfires across the state.

Our number one priority is the safety and support of the approximately 280,000 international students who study in NSW.

The metropolitan areas of Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong are not currently threatened by fires but have experienced smoke haze on some days.

Due to the scale of the bushfires and rapidly changing conditions, individual Australian universities and institutions are best placed to advise students on how fires are impacting their operations.

While it is too early to quantify the impact of the bushfire crisis on Australia’s education sector, it is important to note that the majority of Australia’s education providers have not been directly impacted.

The Commonwealth Government, in partnership with state governments including Study NSW, are working together to provide a communications campaign across government channels to international students.

At this stage, we are expecting commencing and current international students to enrol with their education institution as planned at the start of the academic calendar.

It's heartwarming to see our student community has already played a key role in supporting affected regions including Mark Yeong, a student from the University of Sydney who has been volunteering with the NSW Rural Fire Service and fighting fires since September.

Further information for students and institutions will be shared via www.studyinaustralia.gov.au and www.study.sydney.

Trusted sources of information

Anyone travelling in NSW should follow the instruction and advice of authorities including:

• Rural Fire Service and Fires Near Me website
• National Parks
• NSW Police
• Bureau of Meteorology
• Live Traffic
• Destination NSW
• NSW Department of Education

Stay up to date

It's important you stay up to date before, during and after bushfires and other emergencies. To help, please follow advice, information and warnings through a range of channels.

• NSW Fires Near Me App
• NSW Rural Fire Service Facebook
• NSW Rural Fire Service Twitter
• NSW Rural Fire Service Instagram
• NSW Rural Fire Service YouTube

Translated fact sheets

The NSW Rural Fire Service has produced a wide variety of translated fact sheets including fact sheets on bush fire safety, land management, communities at risk, tourism and recreation, home fire safety and farm fire safety. A variety of fact sheets are available in languages other than English.

Support for bushfire affected communities

We are very grateful for the outpouring of support for Australia and the Australian people including the many offers of assistance and donations being made from all around the world to support bushfire recovery and our wildlife that has been so badly impacted.

While acknowledging that generous donations are coming from a place of kindness, people are urged to pledge money instead of goods, clothing or perishable food.

Financial donations can be made directly to emergency service agencies or to various charities such as:

• Red Cross Disaster Relief and Recovery
• NSW Rural Fire Service
• The Salvation Army Disaster Appeal
• St Vincent de Paul Bushfire Appeal
• Wires (injured wildlife)

To Australia’s many friends and supporters throughout the world who are asking, ‘How can we help?’ we say: keep buying Australian, keep visiting Australia, keep investing in Australia.