London: The signs jutting out above the crowd told the story. "Wake up and smell the smoke", one screamed. Another labelled Scott Morrison a "derro" and urged the Prime Minister to better compensate brave volunteers battling walls of flames around the country. Others mourned the deadly toll the bushfire emergency has inflicted on Australia's world-famous koalas.

Londoners protest at the drop of a hat but this lunchtime meeting outside Australia House felt different. A funereal tone radiated from about 1000 people who gathered to warn that climate change had wrapped itself around the Australian summer and started squeezing.

Extinction Rebellion protesters outside Australia House in central London. Credit:Getty

The noisy gathering fell silent and some even sobbed when a man produced a photograph of 20-month-old Charlotte O'Dwyer, whose firefighter father Andrew O'Dwyer was killed in a blaze south of Sydney.

The protest was organised by the Extinction Rebellion movement but the seemingly endless footage of Australia's bushfire crisis that has captivated and appalled the United Kingdom for weeks now had motivated plenty of newcomers.