Kangaroo Island community-led recovery

Workshop at the Ozone Hotel, Kingscote

11am-3pm, Tuesday 4 February 2020

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Context

The series of fires that started on Kangaroo Island on 20 December 2019 impacted approximately 49% of the island –this included homes, farms, wildlife, domestic animals, and, tragically, two members of the community.

The process of recovery is a long one as the island community moves toward a new normal. This recovery is multi-faceted – there are immediate, medium, and long-term needs that need to be addressed in a number of domains for the community to thrive after such a blow.

On Tuesday 4 February 2020, the Department of Human Services brought together a group of community leaders to discuss the island’s needs and how they can best be supported through the process of recovery.

The aim of the day was for the community to begin identifying issues that have arisen as a result of the fire and to establish a timeline for addressing them.

Recovery will be a community-led process, with support from local government and a range of State Government agencies.

The Department of Human Services would like to express its gratitude to attendees of this initial workshop for investing their time and expertise into guiding the future of their island and recognises that there are many who could not be present on that day. It is also true that not every issue and opportunity was captured at the workshop.

The 4 February workshop was just the beginning of the community’s recovery conversation. As recovery progresses, reference groups will be established to capture ideas, feedback and stories from the Kangaroo Island community.

Recovery will be a long process and will be strongly supported by Kangaroo Island Council and State Government. The bond and resilience of so many impacted by these fires leaves no doubt that the Kangaroo Island community will meet the challenges of recovery head-on.

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What is Recovery? The conduct of human, economic and environmental measures necessary

to re-establish the normal pattern of life of individuals, families and communities affected by an emergency.

Mike Williams, Local Recovery Coordinator, welcomed everyone to the day.

Georgie Cornish, Director State Recovery, led the group through an exploration of the concept of ‘recovery’, and the importance of community-led recovery.

Naomi Szetu, Facilitator, described to the group how the day would unfold, with brainstorming from everyone in the room on priorities for recovery, grouped into key themes.

Recovery takes time

Welcome and purpose

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Guided by Mike, people organised themselves into groups around five themes:

Over 80 people participated in the Recovery Workshop,representing the general KI community, NGOs, and SA Government agencies.

• Social (health & wellbeing)• Environment• Economic – tourism• Economic – primary production• Infrastructure

Participants

Contacts for each of these groups are listed at the end of this document.

If you participated in the workshop and would like a copy of what was captured on the notepaper sheets, request this from your group contact.

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Represented in the room on Tuesday 4 February

The people of Kangaroo Island through individual community members and business owners, and:

AgKI

ChurchesDepartment for Environment and WaterDepartment of Human Services

Junction SA

KI Business and Brand Alliance

Kangaroo Island Community Education

Kangaroo Island Council

KI Tourism, Food, Wine & Beverage Association

Mental Health KINational Parks and Wildlife ServiceNatural Resources Kangaroo IslandPrimary Industries and Regions SARegional Development AustraliaSA HealthSA Housing AuthorityWestern Districts Football Club

❖ Providing Psychological Mental Health First Aid training (PMHFA) (Accidental Counsellor), to facilitate engagement so it is accessible to wider community, especially where needed, e.g. to isolated residents/farmers.

❖ Ensuring information to the community on basic levels of support – e.g. where do I go?

❖ Children needing routine and structure, what’s needed to provide that, identifying what gaps exist and how to get the services there.

❖ A Childcare service in Parndana.

❖ Social connectedness and ongoing opportunities to facilitate this for the community.

❖ Employment and training opportunities required to keep the community engaged in work or up-skilling.

❖ Ensure the right amount of wellbeing services, counselling, psychological support, relationship support, drug & alcohol support, suicide intervention training/support for our community.

❖ Education for parents to aid traumatized children – ‘what do I need to look for in my kids?’

❖ Emergency housing – need to decide what does that look like? What is realistic in the next one to six months?

❖ Caring for the carers.

Key recovery priorities that emerged for this group covered mental health, housing, children's needs, and education to the community.

Social (health and wellbeing)

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The Environment group identified immediate, short-term and long-term recovery priorities for habitat and wildlife, pests & biosecurity, people & planning, and soil & water.

Immediate❖ Research permits, fencing, firebreaks,

wildlife feeding management.❖ Identify dangerous trees❖ Pest plant and animal management❖ Sediment and erosion control❖ Identifying soil, water, vegetation

issues (using imagery to assist this)❖ Volunteer management❖ Managing misinformation

Short-term❖ Glossy Black & Dunnart protection

and recovery❖ Planning and prioritising pest plant

and animal control❖ Property planning❖ Education and school programs ❖ Identify key stakeholders and develop

a communications & engagement strategy

Identifying gaps and key messages for Environment

Environment

Long-term

❖ Recovery plans

❖ Mitigation of fire risk, wise management of native vegetation

❖ Implement revised management and control plans for pest plants and animals

❖ Create a mosaic of age classes in the landscape

❖ Restoration and protection of riparian vegetation

❖ Reducing impacts on freshwater, estuarine and marine environments

❖ Education of next generation

❖ Develop a story of fire recovery

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This group identified key recovery focus areas and what is needed in each to achieve a better future

The Tourism group summarised actions for a better future

Economic - tourism

Business capacity

❖ Assisting businesses to market to ensure longevity (will need resources, assistance, advice, cashflow)

Workforce capacity

❖ Retaining skilled works on KI

❖ Building it better in the future with skills, training, and employment

Product and experience development

❖ A case of ‘bridesmaids and groomsmen’ –iconic attractions are the bride and groom; this is an opportunity to develop alternative products to ensure the full appeal of KI is on offer (and promote the ‘maids and men’

❖ Leveraging existing tourism assets (bridesmaids and groomsmen)

❖ Product development support for current ‘immature’ products

❖ Opportunity to incorporate corporate volunteering to support conference market

Access and infrastructure

❖ Reducing the cost of access will reduce the cost of doing business

❖ redesign and redevelopment of tourism infrastructure in parks and across Island

❖ improvements to road networks to access alternate attractions and destinations

Marketing/PR

❖ Telling the ‘recovery story’ will increase visitation.

❖ Promotion of the ‘off season’ being open for business all year round.

Communication and information

❖ Accurate, timely and up to date information is critical to correcting misinformation and rebuilding the Island’s appeal.

InnovationUnderpins all these areas

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Economic – primary production

Priorities

❖ Immediate farm management

(Fodder, Livestock, Soil, Pasture and Water)

❖ Who, How & When

❖ Clean-up

❖ Rebuilding

(House, Sheds, Yards, and Fencing)

❖ People then making the decisions -through 'Shed Group' meetings and outreach/case worker support

❖ Wellbeing of the community

The Primary Production group worked through their discussion to identify several immediate key recovery priorities, as well as ideas for the future.

Future

❖ Bio-security

❖ Opportunities lie in pest plant and animal control, determining and driving changes to regulations and legislation, economic stimulus

❖ Business Planning (Property Management Planning) whole farm systems and succession

❖ Parks management of fire

❖ Long term fire proofing & fire management hoistically

❖ Communications, new technologies and power - efficiencies and black spots

❖ Capturing the stories, e.g. through a writers’ group, a photo exhibition

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This group identified two key recovery priorities in particular: housing and utilities.

Infrastructure

Priority 1 Housing

Priority 2 Utilities (services)

Other priorities listed by this group

❖Quick access to temporary housing, and identifying specifics around this issue

❖Who needs it?❖What can be re-used?❖ Storage needs❖What can be fast-tracked by local or

state government?

❖ Power connections and supply❖ Water❖ Telecommunications

❖Road-related matters, from fencing to traffic management

❖Water for firefighting❖ Social and community infrastructure

(e.g. sports and community clubs)

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Certain recovery-related key themes arose in discussions across all tables.

Key themes

❖Mental health and wellbeing

❖Housing, all aspects

❖Outreach and case management

❖Capturing the Island’s stories of recovery, and telling those stories

❖ Importance around communicating that the Island is still open for business and has much to offer

❖Employment opportunities and harnessing existing skills and strengths on the Island

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Each group had a ‘lead’ who can be contacted for more detail on the themes explored on the day of the workshop.

Contacts

Social

Environment

Economic – tourism

Economic – primary production

Infrastructure

Bob Teasdale, bob.teasdale@kicouncil.sa.gov.au 0448 635 009

Andrew Heinrich, aphid.heinrich@gmail.com 0427 596 108

Jeanette Gellard, jeanette@innovativeinfluences.com.au 0429 990 063

Shirley Pledge, shirley.pledge@kicouncil.sa.gov.au 0427 041 787

Graham Walkom, graham.walkom@kicouncil.sa.gov.au 0452 286 238

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