Community perspectives take centerstage at Sydney Disaster Resilience Conference and Blue Mountains field trip

Field trip attendees at Govett's Leap lookout in Blackheath

Each year in September, the Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience hosts a conference to showcase the latest ideas and innovations in disaster resilience and risk reduction.

This year’s conference was held at the Sydney International Convention Centre in Darling Harbour, with the theme of “Driving Systemic Change to a create a more resilient future” explored throughout the two day event. Delegates from around the country attended including a wide range of policy makers, academics, researchers, community engagement professionals and recovery practitioners. 

Cathy McNamara (ABCD Inc), Karen Cody (ABCD Inc) and Anne Crestani (Resilient Villages) on stage at the AIDR conference before their presentation. 

For the first time in the history of conference, a community organisation was asked to present. On Day Two, Cathy McNamara and Karen Cody from ABCD Inc (Association of Bell, Clarence and Dargan) spoke to a packed room of conference delegates about the critical role that community organisations can, and do play in bushfire risk reduction and disaster recovery. 

Speaking both eloquently and forcefully, Cathy and Karen talked about the fact that community groups and residents are often the first responders when disasters occur and they also have a greatest level of long term investment in seeing their communities engage in disaster preparedness and resilience activities.

Cathy also spoke about some of the pitfalls that community groups can face due to issues such as a lack of resources and community volunteer burn out and fatigue.

In addition to this, Karen laid out what legislative and systemic changes need to be made to ensure the community groups are appropriately consulted with, and listened to, by government bodies and emergency management agencies. 

Megan Thomas from Belong Blue Mountains speaks to a packed room about PCEP training  

Resilient Villages Project Lead, Anne Crestani also spoke about the critical role that projects like Resilient Villages play in providing community groups like ABCD Inc with the skills and professional expertise they need to be able to achieve their disaster preparedness and resilience goals. 

Immediately after the conference, Resilient Villages also hosted a day long field trip for conference delegates to travel to the Blue Mountains to see first hand, what on-the-ground resilience activities are being undertaken in the region. 

Two buses carrying approximately 80 delegates visited the Mid Mountains Community Centre in Lawson where Megan Thomas from Belong Blue Mountains spoke about PCEP (person centred emergency preparedness) training and Kris Newton from MCRN spoke about lessons learnt from a community perspective after the 2013 and 2019 Blue Mountains bushfires.

Field trip delegates, many of whom came from diverse places overseas like Austria, Palau, Papua New Guinea and the Netherlands also visited the Blackheath Community Hall where “Time to Leave” a  short children’s play on the topic of bushfire preparedness by local playwright Liz Barclay was performed.

Field trip attendees at Govett's Leap lookout in Blackheath

After the play, Karen Cody and Mark Turl from ABCD Inc and Alan Hyde from the Mt Irvine Rainforest Conservancy spoke to the field trip delegates about their experiences of living in the region and dealing with multiple bushfire disasters. 

At the end of the field trip, Margaret Moreton, Executive Director the Australian Institute of Disaster Resilience spoke of the immense value that the day had given the conference delegates. As she said;  “There is nothing like being in the place, you can read and you can research, but there is nothing like seeing it and meeting the people who have lived through it.”

This sentiment was echoed by Collin Sivalingum, who is the State Emergency Services Manager for Queensland Red Cross. He said; “It has been really good to see a local community in action, enacting local solutions. It’s really rewarding to see how community’s are getting together and not depending on formal systems.” 

Dr Lucia Wuersch, Lecturer and Research Fellow From Charles Sturt University also commented; “I am very inspired by all of these people coming together and asking these questions so we can be better prepared and learn from past emergencies. I think there’s been a great spirit [on the trip] today.”