A bushfire heads towards town and there's just one road in and one road out. How can councils and government agencies quickly support communities isolated by natural disasters?
That's the question the Surf Coast Shire is trying to answer by bringing together the region's emergency management sector for an exercise at Aireys Inlet.
With council support, local and regional agencies gathered to simulate a bushfire scenario. The aim was to test their early relief strategies if such an event should happen along the Great Ocean Road.
As a first point of contact during a major emergency, relief and recovery planning is a priority for councils. Surf Coast Shire has strong links with its community and we rely on council's relationships at every stage of an event.
Aaron Ledden, Operations Manager for Otways East at Forest Fire Management Victoria (FFMVic), highlighted the unique challenges facing Aireys Inlet:
'It’s a beautiful coastal community … we’re a forested environment and we are prone to bushfires.'
The exercise focused on a situation where the road is closed due to a catastrophic fire, affecting small coastal communities like Aireys Inlet, Lorne, and Anglesea.
Participants explored how emergency services would respond during the first 12 to 72 hours of such an event, focusing on relief and early recovery efforts including good communication and essential supplies.
Sue Pigdon, Regional Recovery Manager for Barwon South West at Emergency Recovery Victoria explained, 'closing that road means that people are going to have to stay in place, and we are going to have to provide relief services to community when we can’t actually come in.'
The exercise provided an important opportunity for local responders and residents to connect with regional and state-level representatives.
‘One of the main benefits of exercises like this, is it creates those networks' Aaron said.
'It also actually gives an opportunity to really focus in on what is arguably one of the highest risk communities in the state and actually have a really detailed conversation around what are the things that we think are as important and how we are able to get all the agencies essentially singing from the same song sheet.'
The learnings from this exercise will help in supporting communities to build their resilience to emergencies, which is an important part of our collective role in local relief and recovery.
As summer approaches, it’s important to know where to go to find emergency information. Never rely on one source. You can:
- download the VicEmergency app
- know who your local emergency broadcaster is
- review or create your fire plan via the online fire planner
- visit the Country Fire Authority’s guide for more information on how to prepare your property.
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