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Recent fires in the Gondwana Rainforests of eastern Australia, a UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site (1), exposed the country’s inability to protect these unique forests. Rich in diversity and global fossil heritage, the Gondwana Rainforests harbor the highest concentrations of threatened species in subtropical southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales, and they protect more than 40 million years of globally significant rainforest evolutionary history (2–9). Australia must take steps to ensure that these forests will not be lost in future natural disasters. Australia began to break from Gondwana (Antarctica) around 40 million years ago (3), carrying its remnant of Austral paleorainforest and deep time evolutionary history. On its journey north, the Australian continent escaped the ravages of Antarctic freezing, only to heat up and dry out much later as it approached …