The book The Lucky Country was written about Australia in the 1960s, and since then the label has stuck. For anyone slogging their way through a British winter, the image of Australians on the beach seemed impossibly alluring. On my first visit to the country, 25 years ago, a Sydneysider teased me: “You guys used to deport your convicts here. Now what do you think?” Naturally, we were sitting outside at a barbecue with beers in our hands.

In the decades afterwards, Australia’s luck seemed only to improve. Asia’s boom created huge demand for the country’s commodities. For the past three decades, Australia has not suffered a single recession — a unique record in the developed world. With a population of just 25m to share the riches of an entire continent, prosperity seemed guaranteed long into the future. While the US and the UK fretted about the erosion of middle-class lifestyles, the “Australian dream” powered ever onwards.

But by participating so eagerly in the mining boom, Australia might also have been helping to dig its own grave. Fossil fuels are driving climate change; and, as the government now accepts, global warming is a major factor behind the fires, water shortages and record temperatures that are ravaging the country.