Councils in Victoria, the Northern Territory, Queensland and in Tasmania have won awards in this year’s Australian Safer Communities Awards, run by the Federal Attorney-General’s Department.
The Awards, presented at a special ceremony in Old Parliament House in Canberra on 29 November, recognised innovative practices and achievements across Australia that are making communities safer, stronger, more resilient and better prepared for emergencies and disasters.
The National Winner of the Local Government category in the awards was the Yarra Ranges Council, Victoria for a project entitled Emergency Management Without Borders – a model for delivery of emergency relief centres.
The three councils to take Highly Commended Awards were the Redland City in Queensland, Launceston City Council, Tasmania, and the Darwin City Council in NT.
In commended the 18 recipients of national awards, Attorney-General Robert McClelland said they were a concrete example of governments, communities, volunteers and the private sector working together
to create a safer and more resilient society.
“Award recipients demonstrate some of the very best models of Australian citizenship and community participation,” said Mr McClelland. “The Government is both strengthening national partnerships for emergency management and encouraging communities to take a more hands on approach to developing self reliance.”
More than 100 projects from across the country were entered for this annual award, in categories including State Government departments, Local Government, volunteer organisations, the private sector and the education and training arena.
The top award, winner of the Nationally Significant project, was the Office of the Emergency Services Commissioner in Victoria, for leading a national project team to bring on line the Emergency Alert telephone based emergency warnings system that allows life saving messages to
be sent to people via mobile and landline telephones.
For full list of award recipients and project descriptions see www.ema.gov.au
Relief Centres project born out of Black Saturday fires
The experiences of February and March 2009 for the fire affected municipalities of Yarra Ranges and Nillumbik have informed the development of a regional model for the management, staffing and delivery of Emergency Relief Centres by local councils across the Eastern Metropolitan region of Victoria and Nillumbik Shire. The model maximises the benefits for consistent, efficient and effective relief and recovery services with potential for transferability across other municipalities. These services primarily provide emergency shelter with sleeping capacity, security for animals, toilets and showers and are secure.
Guardian on duty in Darwin
In 2008 Darwin City Council implemented a new software program to assist in the management of a disaster. Guardian is an innovative program to track, monitor and respond to all aspects of natural disasters. The software provides electronic management of information received and dispersed during a disaster operation, including for evacuation centre management, allocation of tasks, maps to locate properties and identify hot spots, situation reports, website and bulletin board links, and an auditing facility.
Launceston residents get flood education kit
Development of this project was shared with the Launceston Flood Authority and involved extensive consultation with emergency services, the Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee, Northern Regional Emergency Management Committee, Bureau of Meteorology and even local schools. The kit combines information about flood preparedness and flood warning systems in a single information kit. The kit, provided in a zip lock, waterproof bag for easy storage and retrieval, was hand delivered to residents in affected areas.
Emergency preparedness project for seniors
This project encourages, supports and assists seniors to be prepared for potential emergencies or disasters. It ensures that seniors living in the Redlands have the opportunity to be prepared for an emergency. The project provided the opportunity to build social connections and enabled communities to mobilise and pool effort, skill and resources to address emerging concerns about seniors being vulnerable. The aged care facilities and retirement villages have committed to continue to work collaboratively together.
Special mentions:
Strathewen community group
The locally formed Strathewen Community Renewal Association on Melbourne’s northeast fringe won the Volunteer Category of the Awards with their project called “Renewin’ Strathewen – A community led recovery after bushfire”.The Association has been responsible for coordinating and undertaking the planning and rebuilding process for their community that was devastated by the 2009 Victorian bushfires. The strong local trait of independence and self determination has ensured the recovery of their community. Twenty-seven lives were lost in Strathewen and 80 of the town’s 120 homes were destroyed. The Attorney said this project was tribute to what could be achieved by a determined and committed local community when faced with the enormous challenge of recovery from major trauma.
Fallen powerlines campaign
A campaign to raise the awareness of residents in southeast Queensland to the dangers of fallen powerlines after storms, won the Private Sector category of the Safer Communities Awards. ENERGEX Queensland, the local provider of electricity, changed the focus of its summer advertising to highlight the real dangers of going near areas where live powerlines might have fallen across buildings or motor vehicles when a big wind or storm hits an area. The company recognised the fascination some people – especially children – have with the after affect of a storm. So they used YouTube videos of people risking their lives, to make the risk clearer.
