In March 2001, the isolated community of Kiwirrkurra, located 1200 km to the east of Port Headland and 750 km west of Alice Springs, was inundated with floodwaters. The floodwaters caused essential services to fail, putting people’s health and safety at risk.
All 170 residents were evacuated, first to the neighbouring community of Kintore, then on to the Alice Springs Norforce Army base. Later the community were transferred to Morapoi in the Goldfields of Western Australia, before returning to their lands and community eighteen months later.
The resultant cultural and community disruption was profound, and there are important lessons for emergency managers and coordinating agencies in working with Indigenous communities to be learned from their experiences.
Emergency Management Australia, in conjunction with the Fire and Emergency Services Authority, WA is producing a documentary and supporting visual and audio materials to capture and disseminate the lessons learned from the evacuation of the community.
This is one article in the first Newsletter of the Remote Indigenous Communities Advisory Committee. RICAC is a subcommittee of the Australian Emergency Management Committee. This newsletter is provided twice a year to update remote communities and the emergency services sector on what is happening at RICAC.
The complete newsletter (pdf) can be found here. It covers everything from policy to you-beaut fire trailers and burns statistics for the NT population.
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Meant to comment on this fantastic post. Keep us posted on when documentary comes to fruition. Disaster planning and emergency services must be regularly disseminated then readily available to dispatch in these most vulnerable of communities.
I was the principal of the remote community during the flood and was part of the management team associated with relocation. There were many aspects of the flood management that needs to be addressed and I have not been consulted in any way by a review team. I feel that this would have been essential if a review was undertaken.
g’day Marita,
It does not surprise me that the review was not comprehensive. My understanding is the planning for future events does not include all ‘agencies” working in the area.
UPDATE – The Documentary will go to air on the NITV channel on February 20, 2010, at 8pm AEST
Cath (Producer)