Risky or resilient? Communities’ responses to bushfires



Risky or resilient? Communities’ responses to bushfires
By: The Victorian Eco Innovation Laboratory (VEIL)

26 April 2016
Melbourne School of Design
University of Melbourne

The Black Saturday bushfires caused 173 deaths in 2009 and prompted a rethink of the nation’s emergency planning, policies and practices. Since then, such plans have been updated to include the notion of shared responsibility between government, non government agencies and the community alike. Building community resilience has also been incorporated to promote a better understanding of the risks to bushfire prone communities, encourage the development of individual bushfire plans and increase community self reliance.

However in February 2014, a bushfire that threatened Kilmore dramatically tested these ideals. While official relief centres were opened in towns nearby, hundreds of people chose to shelter at a racetrack instead, an informal place of shelter regarded as ‘unsafe’ by emergency services.

The unexpected self organisation and self reliance of the community was viewed as dangerous rather than resilient. In this presentation, Belinda Young uses the 2014 Kilmore bushfire as a case study to examine the practice of shared-responsibility in disaster management.

About the speaker

Belinda Young has extensive experience in the agricultural not-for-profit sector, having worked for the UK’s Country Land and Business Association. She saw first-hand the tensions between climate change, sustainable farming, community resilience and cultural connectedness. She holds a Masters in Environments and her current interests are sustainable development, change management and emergency management policy.

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