Disaster Communication Burdekin-Style

Ayr resident June Pola knows a thing or two about preparedness for natural disasters. Having lived in the Burdekin Shire for 45 years, she’s experienced many cyclones and floods. She’s lost a roof – and kept her family safe. Like most people here, she’s well aware of the dangers and how to prepare. And she thinks that lived experience of natural hazards is important factor that pushes people to prepare.

“I follow all the things that they say you have to do,” says June. “I moved everything that might blow away under the house because I've seen what's happened with the winds.

People just have no idea of the strength of those winds and the driving rain when you get a category 4 cyclone. Unless you've gone through it, you just cannot experience it any other way.”

Insights like June’s on what helps people prepare, stay resilient and recover from natural hazards is the subject of research currently being conducted in the Burdekin Shire. A team from Deakin University in Melbourne is visiting Ayr this week, to ask locals about how disaster communication is done here. The research is being undertaken for Natural Hazards Research Australia, Australia’s research centre for natural hazards resilience and disaster risk reduction.

“By ‘disaster communication’ we mean, all the messages that people receive about how to prepare for natural hazards, how to survive through them, and how to recover,” says Dr Gabi Mocatta from the Deakin research team. “This might be from emergency authorities, the Council, from media – even from your neighbour.”

The team is particularly interested in what type of information makes people prepared and resilient in the face of ‘compound hazards’ (when two or more hazards occur at the same time or in quick succession) meaning protective responses may be more complex, and there’s less time for recovery. The team also wants to find out how people prefer to receive hazards information.

The Burdekin Shire is one of three case study locations across Australia. Each location has experienced different hazards – storms, floods, fires, drought, flooding, cyclone – some in middle of COVID lockdowns. Communities have different levels of preparedness.

“Sometimes, there are several sources of information and messages can be confusing or contradictory,” says Dr Mocatta.

Burdekin Shire does disaster awareness well. “It all comes through the Council they send out messages all the time,” says June. “The Bureau of Meteorology, they send out the warnings. Then, in the paper the week before the cyclone was a list of things that people needed to pack and get. Birth certificates, insurance documents, some of your better photos, put them in plastic. Because when the roof goes all that gets wet!”

In the latest event, Cyclone Kirrily, June’s house didn’t have any structural damage, but her garden suffered. “It’s nature’s pruning, you know.”

The Deakin team invites all Burdekin community members to join the forum this Saturday 24th February to discuss disaster communication, Burdekin-style. The event will be held at PCYC Burdekin, 64 MacMillan Street, Ayr. Afternoon tea will be served. More information here: https://bit.ly/4bjnCIQ

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Caption: Deakin University invites community members to discuss disaster communications at a forum this weekend

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