A few weeks ago we celebrated Get Ready Week, when communities right across our state came together for a week of activities designed to help Queenslanders get ready for extreme weather and disasters.
Since then, many towns around Queensland have experienced bushfires, and now extreme rain, storms, floods and even hail, with community organisations having to step up and help, often when they themselves are affected.
At Regional Business HQ we are helping community organisations in the Bundaberg and Gladstone regions get ready for disasters with our Community Resilience program, with assistance provided by the Australian and Queensland governments through the jointly funded Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
We recognise that community organisations are the heart of local support networks, especially when disaster strikes. Ensuring these groups are prepared and resilient is essential to keeping critical services running when communities need them most.
Even organisations located well away from direct fire risk can find their operations severely disrupted when a bushfire event takes hold.
The impacts can include:
- Staff and volunteer availability: Workers may be evacuated, defending properties, caring for family members, or unable to travel due to road closures, leaving organisations short-staffed at the worst possible time
- Power outages: Extended disruptions affect normal operations, communications, refrigerated medications, assistive technology, security systems, and the ability to maintain safe environments for vulnerable clients
- Communications failures: Mobile and internet networks can degrade or fail entirely, disrupting client contact, rostering, and coordination with other services
- Surge in demand: Many community organisations become front-line recovery assets during a disaster, facing dramatically increased need exactly when their own capacity is most constrained
- Supply chain disruptions: Consumables, equipment, and contracted services can become unavailable or significantly delayed
- Increased client vulnerability: The people community organisations support are often among the hardest hit, with needs that intensify precisely when usual supports are under pressure
- Staff and volunteer fatigue: Repeated disaster activations (including fires, floods, storms etc.) take a cumulative toll on workforce wellbeing and retention
With the right preparation, these impacts can be anticipated and managed, which is why the Community Resilience program was developed.
This isn’t a one-off consultation. Participating organisations commit to a structured journey including attending workshops, completing planning work between sessions, and actively building their capacity alongside a small peer group of organisations from across the Bundaberg and Gladstone regions.
Each organisation will finish the program with a fully developed and tested Business Continuity Plan as well as being part of a collaborative group who can support each other in a bushfire or, in fact, any natural disaster.
They will also be part of something groundbreaking that will improve resilience throughout Queensland. At the end of the program a Business Continuity Plan template will be produced that can be rolled out to community organisations across Queensland in 2027.
By joining this free program, participating organisations will be better prepared to respond to bushfires and other disasters and maintain essential services for vulnerable community members when they are needed most.
The program has already started, with an enthusiastic cohort of participants in both the Bundaberg and Gladstone regions, but there is still time for community organisations to get involved. But don’t delay – bushfires and other natural disasters have already made an impact in both the Bundaberg and Gladstone regions this year and it’s critical that community organisations “get ready” to continue their important work.
To find out more or register for the free program visit the Community Resilience Program or email info@businesshq.org.au.
