In her decade as an emergency volunteer for the Australian Red Cross, and five years as a volunteer firefighter, Amanda Lamont has responded to hundreds of disaster incidents – but one sticks out.

It was in January 2015, two days after a bushfire had torn through homes and livestock in Moyston, Western Victoria, and her Red Cross team had been called to a property that had been, in part, burnt to the ground.

Amanda Lamont speaking with children after Tropical Cyclone Marcia in Queensland.

The main house was narrowly missed by the flames, but the backyard "bungalow" – home to their twin teenage daughters – had been turned to dust.

"While everyone was OK, the two teenage twin daughters had lost everything. All their clothes, all their things. I spoke with their mother and she was just devastated," Ms Lamont said.