Australia’s 2025 severe weather season has already delivered a clear warning: damaging impacts are no longer confined to the most extreme cyclones or storms.
Moderate events, near-misses and cascading infrastructure failures are already placing significant strain on buildings, essential services and emergency response systems.
This message was front and centre during Natural Hazards Research Australia’s (the Centre) final Hazardous Webinar for 2025, bringing together experts from James Cook University (JCU), the University of Queensland (UQ) and the Queensland Fire Department (QFD) to explore what recent severe weather events reveal about infrastructure resilience, emergency response and community preparedness.
CEO Andrew Gissing began by reflecting on a bumper year of impactful research building safer, more resilient and sustainable Australian communities.
With more than 300 researchers from 57 education organisations working across almost 100 research core projects, Centre research is already shaping national policy and practice. Outputs such as fire danger ratings, emergency warning systems, flood driving safety campaigns and the Australian Disaster Resilience Index demonstrate how research evidence is being translated into real-world decision making.
Cyclones, buildings and the cost of near misses
A/Prof Geoff Boughton from the JCU Cyclone Testing Station reflected on how past disasters continue to shape today’s risks. The devastation caused by Cyclone Tracy in 1974 led to major advances in building codes and wind engineering. However, recent events show that vulnerabilities remain, particularly in regions not traditionally designed to withstand cyclone impacts.
Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which crossed the Queensland coast in March 2025 as an ex-tropical cyclone, produced wind speeds below design thresholds. Yet the damage bill is estimated at around $2 Billion. Water ingress caused failures in fire systems and basements, corrosion-related weaknesses were exposed and loose rooftop materials became dangerous projectiles.
These impacts highlight a critical issue: many buildings in southeast Queensland and southern regions are not designed for full internal pressure, despite increasing cyclone risk. Cyclone Alfred was a close call. A stronger system affecting the same areas could lead to catastrophic consequences.
Learn more about strengthening your property at Weather the Storm.
Cascading failures across infrastructure networks
A/Prof Matt Mason from UQ turned attention to the cascading impacts of severe storms on interconnected infrastructure systems.
Recent storms in southeast Queensland, with wind gusts of around 100 kilometres per hour, caused widespread damage to roofs, solar panels and power networks, leaving thousands of households without electricity. These disruptions occurred at wind speeds well below those typically associated with major structural damage.
Matt’s research focuses on modelling how failures propagate across systems, from power to roads to water, using real event data such as Tropical Cyclone Alfred to improve damage estimation tools. By simulating how disruptions cascade, researchers can quantify the benefits of resilience investments and help decision makers understand where upgrades deliver the greatest system-wide returns.
Emergency response under pressure
From an operational perspective, Dr Jane Sexton from the Queensland Fire Department spoke to how research directly supports emergency response.
During Tropical Cyclone Alfred, QFD worked closely with the JCU Cyclone Testing Station to assess risks in real time, including concerns about falling building elements linked to corrosion. Wind speed thresholds informed damage assessment and response planning, improving responder safety and prioritisation.
Post-tropical cyclone, QFD observed emerging vulnerabilities, such as widespread solar panel damage in subsequent storms. These trends reinforce the need to plan beyond historical assumptions and to regularly exercise preparedness arrangements based on updated science and scenario testing.
Jane emphasised that prevention and preparedness remain the most effective ways to reduce pressure on emergency services, particularly as climate-driven hazards intensify.
What this means for policy, practice and communities
The panel discussion highlighted several cross-cutting implications:
- Buildings must remain functional, not just standing. Government, commercial and community facilities play a critical role in response and recovery, making maintenance as important as initial design.
- Infrastructure resilience requires clear expectations about service levels during and after events, particularly for power and communications.
- Community preparedness matters more than ever, with calls to extend household self-reliance planning from three to seven days.
- Affordable mitigation actions, such as yard maintenance and pruning, reduce risk immediately, while new builds provide the most cost-effective opportunity to embed resilience measures.
- Building standards need to keep pace with risk, with growing evidence supporting stronger wind design criteria and consideration of full internal pressure outside traditional cyclone regions.
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