Tony Sheldon (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Last month I had the privilege of meeting with communities in the Adelaide Hills and Riverland who are recovering from the devastating bushfires and floods of recent years. As has been the case during all my visits to disaster affected regions as special envoy, I was struck by the resilience of the locals and the optimism of those who are getting on with the hard work of recovery. I thank all of those who have shared their experiences with me, and some of them were very personal experiences so I very much appreciate them opening up and having those conversations.

I met with the South Australian Minister for Police, Emergency Services and Correctional Services, Joe Szakacs, and the Community Recovery Coordinator, Alex Zimmermann, to discuss ongoing recovery efforts and future disaster planning across South Australia. I toured Lobethal Bushland Park with representatives from Adelaide Hills Council, including CEO David Waters and Mayor Jan-Claire Wisdom, with whom I caught up again in Canberra just this week. Prior to the Black Summer bushfires, the reserve contained 188 hectares of significant remnant vegetation, nine kilometres of public walking trails, a play space, a picnic area and other public amenities. Sadly, over 95 per cent of the reserve was burnt in the Cudlee Creek fire, with all the playground, picnic and trail infrastructure either being heavily damaged or lost entirely.

It is great to see how the council has been able to rebuild the park with $150,000 co-funded by the federal and state governments through the local economic recovery program and to speak to members of the community resilience team who are responsible for delivering the Towards Community Led Recovery and Resilience and the Recovery Ready Halls programs. This important work is being funded through the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program and Preparing Australian Communities program.

These funding programs are also helping the local community in Mount Barker to recover from the Black Summer bushfires. I heard about two exciting projects from representatives from Mount Barker council. The Fire 2 Flourish team, funded under the Preparing Australian Communities program, are working towards two key outcomes: first, to increase community capacity to support disaster planning, response and recovery; and, secondly, improving landowners' management of fuel loads, including with the use of cultural burning. As the team described it: 'They are making sure that communities are even better positioned to respond if affected by a future event.'

The second project I heard about was the installation of a mural and augmented reality display piece in a local Wallis Cinema funded through the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants Program. The cinema was used as a safe haven for people during the 2019-2020 bushfires. The team hopes that the community will 'take positivity and encouragement from the murals' to aid with recovery. While the artwork had yet to be installed during my visit, I was able to view a video demonstration and hear from the local artist and animator, Luke Jurevicius. Congratulations to the teams involved in all these projects.

While I was in the hills, I also met with facilitators from Women Together Learning who received BSBR funding to run the Regenerate Rural Women program. The program is designed to focus on the wellbeing, identity and social recovery of women impacted by bushfire events. The facilitators told me that one of the participants in the program had said, 'I have lost myself and need to find myself.' WOTL's work is helping participants to do that, building their capacity and resilience for the future.

In the Riverland, I met with representatives from the Loxton council, Berri Barmera Council and the Renmark Paringa Council to talk about the ongoing recovery following the Murray River floods. We heard how their communities rose to the significant challenges presented by the floods, building levees and protecting homes and critical infrastructure. The flood stress tested their systems and seeded ideas about how to improve and prepare for future events. It demonstrated the strength of the community resilience that exists—a silver lining in a dark cloud. These communities, as David Pluckhahn from the Berri Barmera Council put it, just keep plugging away at recovery. (Time expired)