ATEC News

Tropical Queensland has an unenviable record of natural disasters since the time of European settlement. Tropical cyclones and associated sea surges, in particular, are a threat to life and property.

Using coastal sedimentary deposits set down during cyclonic and tsunami events, Professor Jon Nott has recently extended the chronicle of disasters into prehistory. His work has greatly improved knowledge of disaster incidence and frequency through time, enabling more accurate risk assessment than ever before. It has also resulted in a methodology to assess the scale of prehistoric events, revealing the frightening proportions of some weather events.

Disaster management agencies nationwide are concerned about a general lack of hazard awareness and preparedness in the community.

Information from surveys of community understanding of weather warnings and of general disaster preparedness by Associate Professor David King and colleagues in JCU’s Centre for Disaster Studies have improved the capacity of public agencies and coastal populations in the tropics to apply best practice in dealing with natural disasters.

The research showed that public education programs and radio broadcast warning advice need to better consider community diversity.

The research team worked with the Bureau of Meteorology and residents of remote Indigenous and non-English speaking communities to develop weather warnings and web advisory services appropriate to these groups.

In collaboration with Queensland Health, Queensland Education and Queensland Emergency Services, the Centre set up a cyclone awareness educational program, targeting primary school children via the Web.

Using results from surveys conducted after cyclones Larry and Monica in 2006, the Centre showed that resilience in the wake of natural disasters is now a more pressing issue than community preparedness.

These more recent results have been influential in moving public education practice and public authority action planning towards emphasising resilience.