On 13 October 2021, we partnered with the ABC to hear from an expert panel, including researchers Dr Josh Whittaker (NSW Rural Fire Service), Dr Briony Towers and end-user Dr Kate Brady (Australian Red Cross), to acknowledge the United Nations' International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.
The panel discussed the latest research findings on community experiences of the 2019-20 fire season in NSW and bushfire education with children, as well as unpacking bushfire risk reduction through preparation, caring for your mental health and recovery, before answering questions.
Host: Kate Brady, After The Disaster podcast.
Panellists:
- Dr Rob Gordon is a clinical psychologist who has spent 35 years working with communities affected by disasters throughout Australia and New Zealand.
- Dr Josh Whittaker is a geographer specialising in research on the vulnerability of human communities to bushfire (wildfire) and other natural hazards. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong's Centre for Environmental Risk Management of Bushfires from 2016 until February 2021, and is now the Coordinator Community Engagement at the NSW Rural Fire Service. Most recently he led research into community attitudes and experiences of the 2019-20 bushfire season in NSW.
- Dr Briony Towers is the co-director of LEADRRR and a former Research Fellow at RMIT University. For the past six years, she has served as a Chief Investigator on Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC project on child-centred disaster risk reduction. Her scholarship and practice is focused on school-based education for disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation. Briony lives and works on the land of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nation.
- Nicky Haslinghouse is a CFA volunteer firefighter with the Mount Macedon fire brigade in Victoria, and the University of Melbourne’s Emergency Management and Critical Incident Specialist. Having grown-up in one of the most fire-prone areas of Victoria and joined CFA in her mid-twenties, she has held volunteer roles in community engagement, social media coordination and brigade management with CFA, and is deeply passionate about supporting high-risk communities to safely and effectively prepare for, respond to and recover from the impact of bushfire in the landscape.
- Shona Whitton, Australian Red Cross
Watch the full recording below.