Monash University's pioneering program, Fire to Flourish – a community-led resilience initiative borne out of the 2019/2020 bushfires – has just been announced as the Community Award winner at the 2024 New South Wales State Resilient Australia Awards. Fire to Flourish CEO Briony Rogers accepted the award, which was presented by Minister for Planning and Public Spaces Paul Scully and Minister for Emergency Services Jihad Dib at Parliament House yesterday.
The Resilient Australia Awards – an Australian Government initiative managed by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR) – celebrate and promote initiatives that build whole of community resilience to disasters and emergencies around Australia as well as capture and share examples of resilience in action.
Fire to Flourish is trialling innovations in community-led resilience with four partner communities who were impacted by the 2019/2020 bushfires: Clarence Valley; Tenterfield and Eurobodalla in New South Wales; and East Gippsland in Victoria. It is generating new knowledge and tools to support local bushfire affected communities by piloting a new model of holistic support for inclusive, community-led action.
Australia is facing increasing disasters with devastating effects on thousands of communities. Since 2019, New South Wales has seen 73 declared natural disasters, with 20,000 homes damaged in 2022 alone.
Fire to Flourish now goes on to become a finalist in the AIDR's National Resilient Australia Awards, which will be announced at Old Parliament House, Canberra in November.
Professor Briony Rogers is available to provide comments on the importance of advancing community-led disaster recovery and long-term resilience.
Briony Rogers, CEO, Fire to Flourish, Monash Sustainable Development Institute
