A while ago I wrote about the Kiwirrkurra Flood Documentary Project
For those lucky enough to receive NITV (National Indigenous TV) it will be on Saturday evening 20th Feb 8pm AEST.
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.
Tagged as:
disaster planning,
EMA,
emergency,
FESA,
fire,
kiwirrkurra,
policy
The Queensland Government has committed $2 million to assist remote indigenous communities to prepare for extreme weather events. Indigenous Disaster Management Field Officers will be based in Indigenous communities. It will provide training for these officers to run disaster management exercises.
These Indigenous Disaster Management Field Officers are to work with Indigenous Councils with the following aims:
- enhance disaster management planning and exercises;
- recruit and support volunteers for disaster management roles; and
- encourage community leaders to be involved in disaster planning.
There is a need for these people.
Coastal and remote Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme events such as cyclone, storm surge and flooding.
Factors such as distance from major centres, proximity to the coast and the socio-economic status of community members can increase this vulnerability and influence the impact of events.
This two million dollars is to be spent over three years. In remote communities accommodation is scarce. I assume new people will be employed and brought into the community. If it is people already working in the community then they will have to be replaced and housing found. Basic houses in these areas can cost several hundred thousand to build.
Queensland is a large state. These field officers will have to travel extensively. So there will be significant costs with buying vehicles, fuel, airfares etc. With wages to be paid out of this program I can’t see too many field officers being employed.
This $2 million dollar Indigenous Disaster Management Field Officers initiative is a tiny part of a $196 million climate change strategy.
I think I will call it window dressing.
The bulletin is available for downloading: Keeping Our Mob Climate Safe (232)
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Tagged as:
aboriginal,
climate change,
communities,
disaster,
disaster planning,
Indigenous,
Queensland
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.
Tagged as:
disaster planning,
emergency,
fire,
floods,
kiwirrkurra,
policy
