Mark Knowles, Cape York Weekly
A Forum in Cairns last week highlighted the need to improve disaster resilience in Cape York and the Torres Strait.
Organised by the Torres Cape Indigenous Council Alliance, the forum connected local councils, key government agencies, critical service providers, and non-government organisations from across North Queensland in order to improve disaster preparedness.
The Indigenous Local Government Disaster Resilience Forum was attended by representatives from 10 local councils as well those from about 30 state and national government agencies and private service providers that are active in the region.
TCICA deputy chair and Kowanyama mayor Robbie Sands officially opened the event and praised the work of local communities to strengthen their resilience to disasters through co-operation and knowledge sharing.
“Today will showcase some of the good work that our indigenous communities and shires in the Torres and the Cape region are doing through these difficult and challenging times,” he said.
Facilitated by Professor Allan Dale, the forum had speakers from a number of councils on steps taken to build more resilient townships.
Mapoon Aboriginal Shire Council works manager Tom Smith presented on the council’s solar lighting and CCTV project to provide more cost effective lighting of public spaces and increase community safety.
Napranum Aboriginal Shire Council chief executive Janelle Menzies spoke about their fixed wireless network project to improve broadband services.
Weipa Town Authority deputy chair Stretch Noonan spoke on the importance of fostering a strong and functional Local Disaster Management Group and how this was achieved in Weipa.
The forum heard that despite the challenges of COVID-19, local governments across the region have progressed a range of infrastructure improvements including airstrip reseals, barge ramp enhancements and the sealing of community access roads.
Work is also underway to address electricity network matters and telecommunications and connectivity issues.
A total of 19 new flood cameras, river height monitors and rain gauges will be installed across the region, with work expected to be completed by mid-2022.
These will be connected directly to Bureau of Meteorology monitoring systems, with the data and camera images publicly available.
TCICA’s regional resilience coordinator Pip Schroor updated participants on the development of a regional disaster dashboard.
The purpose of the dashboard is to support local disaster coordination for all councils and to improve community awareness of critical information such as weather warnings, road closures, energy network outages, flood alerts, fire incidents, and other emergency information.
Laura Boekel from the Bureau of Meteorology spoke to the forum about the upcoming disaster season and the possibility of a higher than average number of cyclones due to a predicted La Nina cycle.
Charlie Casa from Ergon Energy spoke about the company’s disaster preparedness and planning as well as steps that individuals, families and businesses should be taking now to be prepared.
The forum was also given an overview of several recently completed studies on telecommunications and digital connectivity, food production hub opportunities, indigenous ecotourism opportunities and investment and development opportunities across Cape York and the Torres Strait.
This article appeared in Cape York Weekly, 12 October 2021.
