That's the view of Jim Booth, Senior Cluster Manager for Flourish Australia.

But years of drought and bushfire, followed by the coronavirus crisis, could have a long term effect, he said.

The fires were "incredibly devastating probably, fortunately, for a relatively small number of people. But massively devastating for those who did suffer as a result of the bushfires," he said.

"It will be interesting to see the longer term effects - and these won't present for years - of drought, followed by bushfire, followed by COVID. I won't be surprised if there's an effect, but it's going to be a few years before we see that.

"If there's a silver lining to this cloud, it's that we're now talking about it, thinking about it, whereas in the past it may have been swept under the carpet."

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New data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show rates of suicides among Australian men have increased since 2018.

There were 3,318 registered suicides nationally in 2019 - about 19.8 Australian men per 100,000 died by suicide in 2019, up from 19.2 in 2018.

The median age of death due to suicide was 43.9 years of age for men and 44.0 years of age for women. It was Australia's 13^th leading cause of death. Three times as many men took their own lives as women. For Australian men it's the 10^th leading cause of death.

The rates are even worse in Indigenous communities. Suicide is the fifth leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Their median age at death due to suicide is 29.8 years.

Mr Booth said it's "disturbing" that rates continue to increase despite increased funding by state and federal governments. But social isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred after the period captured in the new ABS statistics, has not led to an expected increase in suicide, he said.

"Why? We've talked about that across the organisation. We know that people with mental health conditions have always felt isolated," he said.

"Whilst we expected some massive change we haven't seen it. Basically the presentations have remained much the same for us. Very few people we support end up going down the suicide pathway."

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The new cause of death statistics show that fewer Australians are dying of heart disease, though it remains the most common cause of death. Just 18,244 people died at a median age of 84 of the disease, down from 21,721 in 2010.

In 2019 West Tamworth had the third highest rate of premature deaths from heart and lung diseases and cancers in NSW.

Dementia has replaced lung cancer as the second-leading cause of death.