Household preparedness for bushfires: the role of residents' engagement with information sources

The following report shows that even after controlling for bushfire risk perceptions, people who access and engage with information sources are better prepared for bushfires than those who do not. The report notes, however, that the majority of people are not accessing the information on how to prepare their household for bushfires, despite being at risk of this occurrence. Several key finding are summarised below.

• People who used one of the three active information sources (i.e., information meetings, websites, or brochures) or had seen a bushfire related television commercial, had on average completed a significantly higher percentage of physical preparedness and planning actions compared to those who had not accessed an information source.
• People who had used multiple (2 or 3) active information sources had also completed a significantly higher percentage of physical preparedness and planning actions compared to those who had accessed only one information source.
• Use of websites had the greatest positive impact on preparedness actions, followed by brochure use. Meeting attendance and seeing a television commercial had only small effects on preparedness.
• Twenty-three percent of people used a brochure to access information on bushfire preparedness, while 20% used a website and 5% attended a local meeting.
• Overall, less than half of the people surveyed (44%) had used at least one of the three types of active information sources (i.e., information meetings, websites, or brochures). Fifty-two percent of people, however, recalled seeing a bushfire related commercial on TV in the last six months.