SOUTH EAST NSW

Resilience Blueprint

Pillars

Summary

How we collectively demonstrate resilience leadership and navigate towards continuous improvement over time, whilst complex, can be driven by a clear set of principles:
• multi-dimensional approaches, which view issues through different resilience ‘lenses’ including human and social, economic, environmental, built environment and infrastructure
• cross-disciplinary effort which brings a range of experiences, knowledge and ideas in contribution to different resilience issues
• local leadership and championship of resilience-related efforts
• flexibility and agility to explore relevant issues and adapt to emerging knowledge and information
• fostering a resilience mindset as part of business as usual practices.
Now more than ever, a strength of leadership that is underpinned by strategic direction is necessary

Deloitte Access Economics (2022) models the total economic costs of disasters in NSW from 2020-2060 to be between $320-$391 billion, depending on emissions scenarios. Even in a low emissions scenario, which we are not on track to achieve, this is a cost to NSW that is unsustainable.

Supplementing our emergency services capabilities and equipment to respond is one option, but this does not deal with the root causes of our disaster risks. We also need to focus on knowing and understanding our risks and doing something about them whilst we can, before circumstances and conditions overtake that ability.

How we grow resilience to climate-driven disaster risk is not only one of the defining challenges of our time, but one of our greatest opportunities.

EXAMPLE APPROACHES FROM ACROSS THE REGION

The Batlow Preparedness Plan is a Resilient Towns Initiative driving a locally-led approach towards making Batlow in the Snowy Valleys LGA a safer community in the event of a future disaster. With the benefit of national and internal resilience expertise, the plan is a two-year project that supports Council and surrounding local communities in the Snowy Valleys towards strengthening resilient towns. The project is funded by the NSW Government.

The Bywong and Wamboin Building Community Resilience program is about better connections between people and local neighbourhoods in Bywong and Wamboin. These connections create a foundation for
local safety, sharing local knowledge and help when needed, to ensure living a rural residential life can be a rewarding and sustaining experience in uncertain times. The program builds on two existing initiativesthe Community Firewise Groups and the public walks program on the Greenways. To support those two initiatives, a community leadership program will help volunteers who may want to lead public walks, offer
to be a Firewise convener or to step up in other ways to assist the community.

The Southern NSW Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hub is a consortium of nine regional partners including primary producers, Indigenous, industry and community groups, researchers, entrepreneurs, education institutions, resource management practitioners and government agencies.  Housed at Charles Sturt University AgriPark in Wagga Wagga, the hub focuses on combating drought through user-driven innovation, research and adoption to facilitate transformational change in drought resilience across Southern NSW.

The ‘Regenerate Capital Region’ is a leadership development program in response to the 2019-20 bushfire season. Its objective is to build a network of trusted contacts across geographical boundaries and agencies to better respond to future fire emergencies. It aligns with the National Strategy for Disaster Resilience’s focus on achieving community resilience through collective and shared responsibility and empowering individuals and communities to create change, and is delivered by the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation.

Yass Habitat Linkages is a 10 year project funded by the NSW Environmental Trust through a partnership between the Yass Area Network of Landcare Groups, Greening Australia, the Australian River Restoration Centre, Land for Wildlife, Local Land Services and Yass Valley Council. The project focuses on restoring wildlife habitat and vegetation across a valued productive agricultural landscape. The project enables
landholders to enhance biodiversity and improve sustainable farming in the Yass region by helping to create corridors of native vegetation across the landscape, with over 53 landholders participating.

Tools for Support

• How to Make Cities More Resilient: A handbook for local government leaders prepared by the UNDRR
• 2020 Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements available from the Commonwealth Government
• 2020 NSW Bushfire Inquiry available from the NSW Government
• 2022 Select Committee on the Response to Major Flooding across NSW in 2022 available from the Parliament of NSW
• Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection:
– Australian emergency management arrangements
– Community engagement for disaster resilience
– Community recovery
– Disaster resilience education for young people
– Emergency planning
– Flood emergency planning for disaster resilience
– Health and disaster management
– Land use planning for disaster resilient communities
– Lessons management
– Managing the floodplain
– National emergency risk assessment guidelines
– Public information and warnings
– Safe and healthy crowded places
– Systemic disaster risk
• Guidance for Strategic Decisions on Climate and Disaster Risk prepared by the Australian Institute for
Disaster Resilience
• Profiling Australia’s Vulnerability prepared by the National Resilience Taskforce
• Best Practice Guidelines: Supporting communities before, during and after collective trauma events
prepared by the Australian Red Cross
• Coping after a crisis prepared by the Australian Red Cross
• Strengthening Your Community’s Resilience prepared by the Australian Red Cross

Resilience Investment

SYSTEM PRIORITIES

We work together to deliver ‘joined-up’ approaches that are coordinated and collaborative

STRATEGIES

Everyone:

• Partnerships and collaboration between local government and communities is supported
• Respect for locally-led recovery needs forms the basis of recovery efforts
• Capability and capacity is a continued area of development
• The translation of plans into understandable concepts if a focus of all levels of government
• All levels of government work with the insurance industry to examine risk and explore options and opportunities that limit
• Information regarding disaster and climate-related risk is shared
• Lessons learned help inform where future efforts are directed
• Coordination across levels of government and between departments is enhanced

INDICATOR METRICS

• Participation in partnerships, communities of practices, industry groups
• Public participation in decision-making processes
• Number of resilience-related capability and capacity programs, including leadership program
• UNDRR resilience scorecard for cities is deployed as a measure

Resilience Resource Directory

Resilience is big space. Here is our directory with links to a number of local, state, federal, and international organisations and resources to help assist you on your journey to building resilience.

Explore

Acknowledgement of Country

We stand on Country that always was and always will be Aboriginal land. We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land and waters, and we show our respect for Elders past and present. We are committed to providing places in which Aboriginal people are included socially, culturally and economically through thoughtful and collaborative approaches to our work.

Resources

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