Recovery Into Resilience Project (RRP)

Shoalhaven City Council has initiated the Recovery Into Resilience Project (RRP) following the devastating impacts of the 2019/20 bushfire season.

The project benefits the community by helping residents and visitors get better prepared for emergencies, be more resilient and have better access to accurate, timely and authoritative information in times of crisis.

During the 2019/20 bushfires, many communities within the Shoalhaven lost access to power and communications, leaving them unable to connect with emergency services. As so many of our residents know, communication is a vital factor in keeping the community informed and safe from harm in an emergency.

From this experience, Council has identified an opportunity to provide reliable and authoritative information from the Shoalhaven Integrated Emergency Management Centre (IEMC) to isolated communities to improve public safety during future emergencies.

Shoalhaven City Council thanks the NSW Government and Commonwealth Government for collectively contributing $2 million toward this project.

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Project Overview

The Recovery Into Resilience Project (RRP) provides a coordinated approach to improving the resilience of the Shoalhaven Community, via three programs involving short and long-term approaches, as detailed below.

Community-led Resilience Planning

Council is empowering a diverse group of community members from our region to create a community-led Resilience Plan. Council engaged Griffith University to work with residents on this component of the RRP, which is an important step in strengthening recovery systems in advance of a disaster.

The framework for this work was developed through an earlier case study involving the Sussex Inlet community and has now be expanded to the whole of the Shoalhaven.

The Resilience Planning component involves a series of community workshops that addresses potential future scenarios and brainstorm adaptive ways to plan for the future.

Find out more about Community-led Resilience Planning and how you can Get Involved.

Community Readiness

The Community Readiness component of the RRP comprises short-term actions to enhance the availability of emergency planning information. Council has engaged directly with communities to provide education on emergency preparedness and enhance the community’s understanding of emergency messaging.

The Community Readiness program complements work currently underway to improve tourist and visitor safety and emergency preparedness.

A program to engage the community in the activation of the Local Information Hubs is part of the Community Readiness activity stream.

Local Information Hubs

Council understands that our community needs to receive authoritative and trusted communication during emergencies to make the right decisions to stay safe. The RRP will deliver critical infrastructure so that in future disasters, if power and communications are lost, as they were during the 2019/20 bushfires, community members can access important emergency information via their Local Information Hub.

Council has installed communications and energy technology at 19 Council-owned halls and community centres across the Shoalhaven. In the event of an emergency, these sites are Local Information Hubs, displaying emergency information for the community. Additionally, four Holiday Haven holiday parks will have information "dashboards" installed (ie. the screen only - no independent power or communications technology).

The information “dashboards” are similar to a large television monitor thet displays authoritative information directly from the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC). The dashboard are linked to the EOC via satellite internet connection and powered via backup power from solar panels and batteries. This ensures the Hubs are not reliant on mobile phone towers or the power grid.

The project made use of commercially available technology fitted and installed by local providers.

View the list of sites to receive the technology upgrade.

Get Involved

There are a number of opportunities for community members to get involved in this project. The News Feed on this page are updated as the project develops. If you would like to be notified when opportunities or updates are available, please subscribe via the 'Stay Informed' function on this page.