Resilient Australia Awards celebrate community-led initiatives for close to two decades

Disasters threaten communities in many ways, including disruption to normal routines, physical harm and social disconnection. Both communities of place and communities of interest may be affected by disaster. These communities will also be first witnesses, involved as recovery workers and spontaneous volunteers. Communities remain and continue the work of recovery, well after emergency services and other NGOs have left affected areas.

In recognition of community-led initiatives and projects that build disaster resilience, the Resilient Australia Awards are celebrated annually. These awards recognise and promote projects that strengthen community disaster resilience across the nation. The awards elevate achievement at the local level to a national visibility, inspiring broader consideration of preparedness and resilience across other communities and contexts. Sponsored by the Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department, the annual program has run continuously for close to two decades.

The 2016 award recipients were exemplars of the adaptation, self-reliance and social capacity that characterise disaster resilient communities aligned to Australia’s National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. Winners across national, schools and photography categories demonstrated leadership and initiative:

• students of Anglesea Primary School in Victoria took on the roles of educators, acting as agents of community change as part of the Country Fire Authority’s Survive and Thrive program
• under the leadership of the John Gallina, Sunshine Coast Council in Queensland implemented the Disaster Hub portal to equip community with a responsive, authoritative source of truth for information on disasters before, during and after they occur – proactively seeking avenues for greater expansion and deployment of the resource to community gain
• in a tribute to community strength, Karin Calvert received the photography award for her iconic portrait of State Emergency Service volunteer Bob Jaecocke, who generously sacrificed hours of time travelling to provide support to communities in the wake of Cyclone Marcia in Queensland.

Importantly, the legacy of the Resilient Australia Awards is a growing collection of case studies for positive community change. The other unifying aspect of the stories gathered in 2016 was the shared vision for how each project might be translatable to another context, to benefit other people. This element is a powerful example of ‘communities leading communities’; while Australia’s vast and varied geography threatens to isolate, these champions of resilience represent key steps to unite Australia as a more resilient nation.

In its second year of managing the awards, the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) look forward to announcement of the 2017 winners on November 23, in Sydney.