List of successful Risk and Resilience Grant recipients

Alpine Resorts Victoria

Alpine Resorts Victoria's Strategic Natural Disaster Risk and Resilience Roadmap

This project aims to develop a strategic roadmap that identifies and determines priority actions to strengthen ARV's risk and resilience and to understand and strengthen the resilience of ARV's essential infrastructure.

$125,000

Bass Coast Shire Council

Increasing Community Disaster Resilience in Bass Coast

This project will support high-risk Bass Coast communities by providing fit-for-purpose all-electric refuge centres, and accompanying education, awareness, and engagement campaigns to support increased disaster preparedness and community resilience.

$145,000

Buloke Shire Council

Donald flood protection demountable levee

This project aims to construct a demountable pre-fabricated levee to protect the township of Donald from future flood events.

$496,861

Campaspe Shire Council

Campaspe Shire Council Emergency Relief Centre Capacity Building Project

This project will review Council’s Emergency Relief Centre facilities to improve capacity, capability and incorporate diversity & inclusion best practice models. Council will work with experts in resilience strategy, disaster/risk management and community resilience practices building on work completed in Councils' after-action flood review.

$125,000

Casey City Council

Climate change risk assessment - Casey Climate Adaptation Plan

This project will engage a technical consultant to undertake a climate change risk assessment and support an internal engagement process, contributing to the development of Casey's Climate Adaptation Plan. The Plan will guide Council actions to ensure organisational resilience and community preparedness for the adverse impacts of climate change.

$45,000

Castlemaine Institute

Whole-of-Home Resilience: Mount Alexander Shire Household Multi-hazard Resilience Professional Assessment Pilot

This project will pilot an integrated resilience and energy efficiency home assessment methodology and train regional home assessors in the methodology and deliver up to 150 combined multi-hazard and energy efficiency assessments.

$250,000

Corangamite Shire Council

Lower Curdies Flood Study

This project will determine the potential impacts of riverine, overland, flash and coastal flooding for the Lower Curdies sub-catchment. Information and mapping from the flood study will reduce flood risks and build resilience in the sub-catchment.

$140,000

Corangamite Shire Council

Corangamite Shire Climate Change Risk Assessment and Action Plan

This project will empower land and waterway operators to understand the safety challenges and mitigate risks associated with inland waterways. This will be achieved through the creation of an inland waterway code of practice and two supporting handbooks on safety signage and public access rescue equipment.

$30,000

Country Fire Authority

Enhancing Strategic Land Use Planning Capability

This project will deliver bushfire risk assessment products specifically related to strategic land use planning and the implementation of rigorous strategic planning decisions, providing the critical capabilities and knowledge needed for councils to apply sound consideration of bushfire risk to strategic growth and settlement activities.

$233,000

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

High-resolution Victorian Wave-Hydrodynamic Model, Hindcast and Climate Scenarios

This project will produce a state-wide high-resolution coupled wave-hydrodynamic model, including hindcast and future climate scenarios. The outputs will help to inform all subsequent coastal hazard and risk studies.

$240,000

Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action

Coastal Hazard Technical Assessment Guidance

This project will develop a Technical Guideline for coastal hazard assessments in Victoria, with input from a technical panel with expertise spanning a diversity of hazards including erosion, inundation, estuary dynamics and groundwater. The Guidance materials will support risk mitigation, building resilience, land use planning and adapting to climate change.

$100,000

Department of Health

Developing guidance for health services to better understand and manage climate risk

This project will undertake broad engagement with health services in regional and rural areas to support an improved understanding of climate-related risks that health services are exposed to and to share experiences and lessons from recent extreme weather events.

$90,000

East Gippsland Shire Council

SEEKING SAFER evacuations and invacuations in East Gippsland

This project will work in collaboration with Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee and CSIRO to utilise SEEKER and SAFER modelling to improve knowledge, target mitigation, and feed into response decisions.

$150,000

Gippsland Alliance for Climate Action (Gippsland Climate Change Network)

Gippsland climate risk mapping

This project will assess climate risk across four pilot locations in Gippsland, to build an understanding of key climate risks and their variance geographically. A consultant will be engaged to develop a spatial tool mapping climate risks, with assets such as roads and buildings identified, and the likely hazards and impacts to assets assessed.

$32,000

Greater Shepparton City Council

Murchison Floodplain Management Plan

This project aims to determine whether there are any viable mitigation measures for the township to enhance the level of protection currently offered by an informal levee system. The study will also determine whether other at risk parts of the community could be protected from a future flood event.

$125,000

Mallee Catchment Management Authority

Southern Mallee - Flood Mapping and Intelligence Project

This project aims to produce contemporary flood mapping and intelligence information for the region, incorporating the Avoca River, Tyrrell, Lalbert and Yarriambiack creeks, as well as the local towns impacted by localised riverine flood and storm events.

$522,500

Manningham Council

Capacity building in the green wedge

This project aims to improve connectivity and sense of ownership among locals. This helps communities prepare for emergencies through improving knowledge and skills, and empowering locals to act. The project will map existing community groups, connections, existing emergency issues and needs, through engaging on a range of emergency-related projects and co-designing beneficial outcomes.

$134,774

Mansfield Shire Council

Upper Catchment Tributaries Flood Study

This project will identify historic flood information related to the upper catchment tributaries within Mansfield Shire and engage with key stakeholders to understand and characterise the flood risk along these systems and make recommendations to help inform the community about the flood risk, mitigation and prepare for future flood events.

$100,000

Moira Shire Council

Barmah Floodplain Management Plan

This project will see if there are any viable structural flood mitigation options for the township which could provide a level of protection for future flood events, following the 2022 flood events.

$100,000

Monash University

Developing a shared understanding of bushfire risk in Victoria

This project aims to support land and fire management agencies in Victoria to engage with community about bushfire risk. The project will apply behavioural science approaches and include engagement with land and fire management practitioners and the community to identify important similarities and differences in risk understanding.

$122,499

Moonee Valley City Council

Maribyrnong River Precinct Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment

This project aims to understand how climate change will impact the facilities, open spaces and users of the Maribyrnong River Precinct, whilst embedding Traditional Owner values and knowledge of Country to inform climate adaptation and resilience. Cultural Values Study will be integrated with a Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessment enabling identification of improvements to the precinct’s climate resilience in a culturally and contextually appropriate manner.

$64,500

Moorabool Municipal Emergency Management Planning Committee (Moorabool Shire Council)

Bacchus Marsh Aerodrome Emergency Exercise

This project aims to conduct a major practical exercise at the Bacchus Marsh aerodrome, focusing on the wildfire risk in the area and incorporating the challenges associated with operating in and around an airport.

$25,000

North Central Catchment Management Authority

Keeping an Eye Over Flood Risk: Bridgewater; Quambatook; Echuca; Clunes & Newbridge Flood Eye Updates

This project will provide information on FloodEye for five townships, enabling the public to instantly obtain a free report containing property specific flood information.

$50,000

North Central Catchment Management Authority

Loddon Total Flood Warning System Review

This project will improve flood resilience through a detailed review of the flood warning systems available to the various communities in the Loddon catchment. A suitably qualified consultant will be contracted to assess the total flood warning systems.  Improvements will be identified and prioritised to inform fit-for-purpose total flood warning systems to service at-risk communities.

$198,000

North Central Catchment Management Authority

Responding to Floods, Protecting the Past: Traditional Owners and Floodplain Management in the Gannawarra Shire.

This project will address the need to engage with Traditional Owners so that their knowledge can be included in floodplain management and flood response activities. Bring together the Gannawarra Municipal Flood Emergency Planning Committee (MFEP), flood observers and Traditional Owners to reflect on the Spring 2022 flood event, identify regional guidelines, actions and risks and develop actions within the MFEP.

$200,000

Puffing Billy Railway Board

Cool Volunteers: Supporting Climate Change Resilience among Puffing Billy Railway Volunteers

This project will create a Heat Refuge at Emerald Lakeside station for volunteers and produce ‘Cool Kits’ for all outdoor workers and volunteers to support them to escape the heat, rest and rehydrate. The project will also carry out an internal review and a heat health education and awareness campaign for volunteers to boost self-care for maintaining their health during extreme heat events.

$56,291

Pyrenees Shire Council

Flood Mitigation Investigation Project - Avoca Recreation Reserve

This project will investigate storm and flood mitigation options for the Avoca Recreation Reserve, building on a recommendation in the Upper Avoca River Flood Investigation to consider a bund around the reserve.

$120,000

Strathbogie Shire Council

Floodway Safety Project

This project aims to identify all floodway locations on Council's public road network and determine a risk rating with associated safety measures including depth marker advisory signage and standards for floodway designs.

$50,000

Triple Zero Victoria

Increasing disaster resilience through improved lessons management capability

This project will build the emergency management sector’s disaster resilience and improve community safety outcomes by supporting continuous improvement of Call Taking and Dispatch and Operational Communications performance for natural disasters. The project will develop a lessons management framework and support increase lessons management capability of Triple Zero Victoria.

$210,000

Wangaratta Rural City Council

Climate Adaptation Plan

This project will develop a Climate Adaptation Plan for the whole of the Wangaratta municipality, focusing on increased natural hazards due to climate change. Through climate-related event disruption scenario analysis and impact assessments, it aims to enhance resilience and preparedness, and address risks in critical areas.

$50,000

Wellington Shire Council

Strengthening community facility resilience sustainably to reduce disaster impact

This project will complete improvements to community facilities, strengthening resilience by empowering communities to activate local relief and recovery activities during times that Council/agencies are unable to physically access the area.

$247,500

Barwon South West Climate Alliance

Resilient Community Assets

This project will confirm climate modelling in order to understand the vulnerabilities across councils’ community assets and interventions needed in order to increase resilience to climate change and limit disaster risk. Supported by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools that allow information to be embedded in council systems, the vulnerability assessment will prioritise asset risk, and up to six selected assets/hazards will undertake deeper analysis to best situate projects for action.

$245,200

City of Greater Bendigo

Building Community Resilience to Adapt

This project will deliver localised adaptation action plans, developed through vulnerability assessments, rigorous community engagement and co-design processes. Working with people who are most vulnerable to climate change impacts and disasters, this project will use proven engagement tools to foster community knowledge of emergency risk, enabling a shared responsibility for climate adaptation in the face of increased emergency events including fire, flood and extreme heat. Building on the work undertaken in the Safer Together program ‘Resilience Project’, this project will work with targeted townships and in partnership with DJAARA and Bendigo Community Health Services to strengthen resilience and climate adaptation.

$235,000

Country Fire Authority

Regional Bushfire Evacuation Scenarios

This project will build simulations of historic bushfire events and overlay modelled agency and public response to the scenario using the best available visualisation technology. Importantly, fire behaviour and progression aspects will be historically accurate while the public response aspects will focus on simulated human behaviour, movement and associated consequence when faced with the fire event.  The impacts of a bush or grass fire evacuation will be modelled with the aim to inform inter-agency planning and preparedness, with the specific objectives of raising awareness and reducing the risk of late-stage evacuation fatalities in a bushfire disaster.

$160,000

Department of Energy, Environment & Climate Action

Identifying and managing risks of climate change and altered fire regimes to biodiversity

This project will boost the resilience of biodiversity threatened by changing fire regimes caused by climate change. Cutting-edge biodiversity and fire modelling will identify where future fires pose a risk to biodiversity and how this risk might be mitigated. This project will equip managers with better information to support strategic and operational management of the natural environment. By providing policy and operation-ready information products, this project will ensure the Victorian Government is using the best available science needed to minimise the risk posed to the state’s biodiversity by more frequent and severe bushfires brought about by climate change.

$678,590

Department of Health

Climate risk assessment of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations

This project will support a climate change risk assessment for up to 6 Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs), informed by community and traditional owner knowledge of country. The project will demonstrate self-determination and will be led by the Department of Health in partnership with the Victoria Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation. The project will support future investment in ACCHO infrastructure that is resilient to disaster and climate change risks and establish a body of knowledge on local risk management for critical health and wellbeing service providers for the Aboriginal community.

$242,000

Department of Health

Climate change, cemeteries and health - assessing, understanding and responding to risk.

This project will complete an assessment of climate change risks and adaptation opportunities for Victoria's five Class A cemetery trusts and selected Class B cemetery trusts (up to 6). This project will also undertake an analysis of potential future interactions between the cemeteries sector and the health system under extreme climate scenarios and incorporate findings into cemetery and health system emergency planning.

$100,000

Triple Zero Victoria

Sole Carrier Disaster, Risk Mitigation Project

Triple Zero Victoria utilises Telstra Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) services for carriage of Triple Zero (000) telephony services and utilises Optus internet links for data communication. When a member of the public calls ‘000’, they use Telstra SIP connectivity. There have been instances of major disruptions to the Telstra Network in the past, leaving Triple Zero with little to no ability to take ‘000’ calls to allow for the dispatch emergency services to support community need. Introduction of secondary carriers for both Telephony and operational internet services (data) will mitigate societal disaster risk. This project will deliver the disaster mitigation solution.

$355,228

Fire Rescue Victoria

RPAS BVLOS Trial and Evaluation for emergency management use

Fire Rescue Victoria currently deploys Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in support of a range of planning, preparedness, response and recovery uses. The RPAS capability are fitted with sensors used to gather information to assist Fire and Emergency agencies throughout Victoria. This project will facilitate accessing enhanced RPAS functionality by trialling and evaluating Beyond Visual Line of Sight RPAS capabilities in simulated emergency scenarios and measure the capabilities against a set of criteria that will include use at fire, flood and explore utilisation and use cases for other applications, including detection, mapping and live streaming of incidents.

$371,000

Goulburn Murray Water

Flood Recovery and Resilience Project

The project aims to provide suitable measures to future-proof key office locations affected from previous extreme weather events. Goulburn Murray Water aims to ensure longevity to business operations and to assist in reductions to carbon emissions by adopting energy-saving technologies.

$676,725

Grampians Health

Heatwave HELP (Health Emergency Local People) - Mobilising local leaders and their networks to prepare communities for heatwave

Heatwave Health Emergency Local People (HELP) mobilises the deep and strong local networks in Grampians’ communities to ensure that individuals at high risk of severe impacts from extreme heat are supported to prepare for a heatwave before it hits. Supported by the Grampians Public Health Unit, the program will equip local service providers and local governments to identify and support individuals at high risk of heat harm in their existing client base and the wider community, to reduce the health consequences of heatwave across our region and the demand on health and emergency resources.

$549,685

Life Saving Victoria

Enhancing water safety: a comprehensive inland and coastal waterway risk model for Victoria

Victoria has recorded a significant increase in drowning over the past five years. A major recent trend is the impact of climate change and the drowning risks associated with more frequent extreme weather events, such as flooding and heatwaves. Whilst risk exposure modelling exists for other emergencies, there is no modelling for drowning emergencies in Victoria.
‍The project involves development of a comprehensive risk exposure model by integrating multiple state-wide exposure indicators. This model will yield geographically specific insights into fatal and non-fatal drowning. These insights will support emergency management agencies, land managers, and local government in prioritising mitigation strategies.

$183,175

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Macedon Ranges Shire Council Resilient Power Infrastructure for Critical sites

This project seeks to support the purchase and installation of a dedicated generator and a mobile generator to ensure power supply during emergency events for the two critical Council emergency coordination sites in Gisborne and Kyneton. The generators will ensure essential community services can be delivered despite impacts to power supply, and the mobile generator will provide flexibility by enabling the deployment of power to impacted areas as required. The mobile generator could also be shared with neighbouring communities if needed, and if not already in use, through emergency management arrangements.

$65,000

Macedon Ranges Shire Council

Macedon Ranges Community-Led Emergency Resilience project

This project will support seven local communities to develop community-led resilience plans. The plans will look different for each town, reflecting what each of the communities identify as their risks, vulnerabilities, assets and strengths. This funding would enable the project to be delivered in seven towns, funding will support a full-time staff member to work with these communities, assist each group to carry out community consultation and engagement, and to deliver a plan for their respective communities.

$75,000

Moonee Valley City Council

Understanding Climate Emergency Risks for Vulnerable Communities in Moonee Valley

A detailed and comprehensive climate change vulnerability assessment is needed to assess variation in risk levels across Moonee Valley’s communities and inform future service and asset planning. There is currently a significant gap in local climate change vulnerability data. This project will undertake a comprehensive climate emergency risk assessment report which will include:  a literature review to identify data relevant to the municipality and highlight gaps; and an Emergency Management profile, produced through collection and analysis of local climate risk data, using an existing RMIT matrix to generate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) files.

$50,000

Murrindindi Shire Council

Naturally Cooler Murrindindi

This project will increase urban tree canopy cover, reducing the impact of climate-fuelled extreme heat on Murrindindi’s townships. An Urban Tree Strategy and policy will be developed, along with a community consultation and education program. Strategic work will guide Council’s maintenance program to support existing trees and identify priority locations for new plantings. Climate-adapted trees will be purchased and planted. The planting will result in targeted canopy cover and shade in areas of public activity and pedestrian activity, reducing daytime surface temperatures by between five and 20 degrees Celsius.

$105,000

North East Regional Water Corporation

Wodonga Offtake Flood Levy

Situated on the Murray River floodplain, the Wodonga Offtake Pump Station is the sole source of water supply to approximately 25,000 residential customers and various commercial industries within the Wodonga area. With no current backup supply option available, this facility has been classified as having the highest criticality rating available by North East Water.
‍It is expected that intensity and frequency of flooding events will increase and that the site is exposed to a risk of catastrophic damage. This project proposes to construct a flood levee around the site for protection against future flooding events.

$897,000

Southern Grampians Shire Council

Urban Heat Mapping

The project will focus on heat-mapping within the Shire's urban centres, utilising thermal heat and Lidar sensing. The high-quality data will inform the Council’s Sustainability Strategy and to mitigate risks in relation to extreme heat. The project will acquire baseline data to support integrated water management measures and maximise canopy tree planting on public land in streets, local parks and public places to help improve resilience during extreme heat events with provision of ‍shading and cooling. The data collected will inform future projects and equip decision-makers with the information they need to reduce disaster risk and manage residual risk.

$50,000

Southern Rural Water

Glenmaggie Dam - Dam Break & Consequence Assessment

Glenmaggie Dam supplies the Macalister Irrigation District. ‍Since the last review in 2015, Australian rainfall and run-off was updated, and with changes in climate, the flood frequency and intensity have also changed. ‍This study will consider the impact of these changes on the consequence of a dam break at Glenmaggie. Additionally, flood inundation maps will be produced for rare and more frequent floods. This will support Southern Rural Water and local and emergency authorities to make more informed decisions regarding the effect of floods on Lake Glenmaggie and downstream communities.

$75,000