The professionalisation of emergency management in Australia is ongoing. Supporting that process is the development of a body of knowledge to support the new profession. The body of knowledge for emergency management requires that emergency events are recorded in a manner and format that supports ongoing learning and research. There is currently no agreed format or standard for the recording of emergency events in Australia. Emerging from research into the human capacities of an emergency manager in Australia is the concept of a minimum dataset that supports building the body of knowledge and supports future research. The Australian Emergency Management Uniform Minimum Dataset is proposed as a means of standardising the collection of data related to emergency events that occur in Australia. A standardised collection of data will allow for practitioners and researchers to identify and learn from past events and will support the professionalisation of emergency management practice.
Effective management of the response to an incident or emergency event is critically dependent on the decision-making skills of incident and emergency management (IEM) personnel. In a series of workshops conducted in 2022 by Natural Hazards Research Australia, priorities were identified that specified future needs for the practice and training of IEM decision-making. The research in this paper contributes to the understanding of how to address these priorities by considering the views of a sample of fire and rescue service personnel about their agency’s current decision-making training program and aspects to improve. This paper provides findings from 34 semi-structured interviews with fire and rescue services personnel in Australia. The sample comprised 29 men and 5 women. Participants worked in rural fire services (n=17), urban fire services (n=9) and State Emergency Services (n=8). The findings suggest that there is need for greater training focus on emergency management decision-making, greater use of exercise-based training activities, a formal approach to mentoring and coaching staff development programs and mandatory refresher courses and review exercises to maintain incident management skills. Australian fire and rescue services agencies need to ensure they are taking a strategic and holistic approach to emergency management learning and development programs.
Land-based search and rescue training in Aotearoa New Zealand has undergone substantial change, yet there has been limited examination of how these changes have affected the analytical foundations of search management. This review was undertaken to identify what concepts, tools and competencies have been retained, modified or lost in the Managing Land Search Operations course that evolved into Manage the Initial Response and Extended Search Planning. Using 8 analytical domains and a continuity scoring approach, this longitudinal review examined the evolution of 3 core courses. Findings indicate improvements in operational rhythm, interoperability, safety and alignment with the country’s Coordinated Incident Management System. However, these gains are accompanied by a reduction in analytical depth, probability-based reasoning and decision traceability. Key frameworks, including the Probability of Success equation and the Bike Wheel model, have been simplified without clear justification. This review concludes with recommendations to restore analytical foundations and strengthen evidence-based decision-making within the search and rescue training system.
In the aftermath of a disaster event, there is an increased need for public participation in recovery-related decision-making, exceeding the typical scope of public participation in non-disaster settings. Community-led approaches to recovery are generally considered advantageous to ‘top down’ approaches, not only based on principles of democratic local governance, but also for sustainability, suitability to local context and the implementation benefits that local buy-in and participation can provide. Community recovery committees are a frequently used mechanism in Australia to enact community-led approaches to recovery. This paper outlines the development of a new self-assessment tool for community recovery committees to support these groups identify areas of agreement and disagreement in relation to governance, formation and scope and stakeholder engagement, based on learnings from past groups. This paper outlines the development and testing of the tool and subsequent insights for future community recovery committees and for government and other agencies supporting them.
Garden management plays a crucial role in reducing bushfire risk at the wildland-urban interface, yet implementation of fire-safe practices remains challenging. An analysis of garden assessments and in-depth interviews with 23 property owners in Greater Hobart, Tasmania, examined how technical, social and emotional factors influence garden bushfire adaptation decisions. Using the Cynefin framework and complexity theory, this study demonstrates that successful adaptation addresses multiple domains of complexity, from straightforward vegetation management to complex socio-emotional attachments to garden spaces. Findings reveal that while personalised garden assessment reports can motivate change, their success depends on a broader set of conditions. Barriers include practical constraints (e.g. green waste management), emotional attachments to garden elements and difficulties obtaining context-specific guidance. By applying the As Low As Reasonably Practicable (ALARP) principle, this study identified cost-effective interventions across the 4 avenues of institutional support and resource management, individual garden bushfire adaptation, personalised technical guidance and community support networks. This research suggests that creating fire-adapted gardens requires coordinated support systems that address both practical implementation challenges and emotional connections to garden spaces.
