Email
[email protected]

Contact
Rod Lambert

Phone
0407 992 447

Halls Gap Resilience Group

Resilience is the capacity of Halls Gap to respond positively to emergency events. It is the ability of the community to prepare for, and react to, emergencies in a sustainable way.

Halls Gap is vulnerable to floods, landslides, bushfires and other threats. They adversely affect the local economy and the health and wellbeing of residents and tourists. The severity of the adverse impact depends on the scale of the disaster and the level of preparedness to respond to the emergency. Developing community resilience to emergency events will

1.  minimise the adverse impact,
2.  contribute to a quicker, more effective, response and recovery, and
3.  make for a safer community.

The Halls Gap Resilience Group (HGRG) was a subcommittee of the Community Association of Halls Gap Inc. It was a forum for agencies and community representatives to develop strategies and frameworks to support the resilience of the Halls Gap community. It was intended to help both residents and tourists to

–  understand the nature of various emergency events, and
–  actively prepare for, and mitigate against the adverse impacts of, emergencies.

However, the HGRG ceased operations in May 2023, largely because resilience doesn’t have a high enough priority in Halls Gap. It’s not that the community isn’t interested in resilience (many residents attended the resilience workshops in 2023), it’s that when it comes to actually committing time and effort to implement actions or programs, resilience doesn’t appear to be important enough to divert people away from other activities or interests.

This isn’t necessarily a problem – people have a right to live their lives the way they want – but there is little point in pursuing a resilience program under these circumstances. In hindsight the HGRG delivered some positive outcomes (see publications below), but overall it proved to be a somewhat futile waste of time. (Inadequate emergency agency support didn’t help.) Now that the reality of the situation is known, it doesn’t make sense to continue supporting a resilience program in Halls Gap.

HGRG Publications

Governance

  1. Resilience Group Terms of Reference
  2. CovidSafe Plan

Submissions

  1. Submission to the MEMPC on Community Based Emergency Management
  2. Submission to the MEMPC on Halls Gap Safety Factsheets

Analyses of Halls Gap Safety Issues

  1. Halls Gap Threat & Risk Assessment
  2. Review of Emergency Management Plans
  3. Status of Action Items from Review of EM Plans – May 2023
  4. Pros and Cons of Sirens
  5. Pros and Cons of Backup Power
  6. 2022 Halls Gap Fire Plug Audit
  7. 2023 Halls Gap Fire Plug Audit

Draft Emergency Management Plans

  1. Dam Break Evacuation Plan
  2. Extreme Heat Plan

Safety Factsheets and Guides

  1. Lake Bellfield Dam Safety Factsheet
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