Regional Drought Resilience Planning

[Video begins]

Chris Sounness [00:26]:

The Future Drought Fund, Regional Drought Resilience program for the Wimmera Southern Mallee, I think is all about preparation. Resilience is about preparation, not the response.

Dr Cathy Tischler [00:36]:

A lot of the resilience work that’s been done to date has focused on the land and to an extent agriculture, which I think is really important. But we’ve gotta challenge our thinking in that space a little bit more and look at how we create resilient communities as a whole. I think we’ve actually got to do more to prepare all the people in our communities for times of climate variability.

Chris Sounness [00:59]:

The biggest challenge in our community isn’t actually the farming systems. We have 23 small towns under a thousand people, and they’re the ones that are most impacted because when the drought hits, the farmers spend tend to spend less money locally.

Dr Cathy Tischler [01:13]:

Small business owners are very independently resilient, but we also felt that small businesses experienced significant hardship through the millennial drought and other drought periods in our recent past. And we felt that they were largely expected to get on with business on their own. And a number of them spoke about other businesses that had had folded up and left the area during times of drought.

Chan Uoy [01:47]:

The next drought is around the corner. We know that. So as a business owner, I guess we’ve, you know, had to diversify. So for example, we’re not just a gift shop, we are also, you know, wine bar, we also accommodation. So we have to be flexible and versatile to adjust to the circumstances, the crisis and the environment. Also, as a community member, you need to support each other, boost morale and have community engagement, and also create activities that people can forget the hardships for a while.

Dr Cathy Tischler [02:19]:

A really important consideration for us going forward is how do we maintain the vibrancy and the diversity of business in our community when we’re experiencing periods of drought and we’ve got that localised cash flow tightening?

Chan Uoy [02:34]:

My first time coming to Dimboola from Melbourne, I really thought, where’s everyone? How do I bring customers to a sleepy town? The goal was to create something really quite bold, quite out there, quite imaginative. So I came up with a steampunk event. Dimboola was a 19th century railway town. It’s got the architecture, it’s got the intimacy of the street scape to host a street party. We had nearly 4,000 people. We had three stages, 12 bands. We had a multicultural flash mob from the Wimmera Development Association. So 55 different cultures performed the Time Walk flash mob. That was quite phenomenal according to locals who had lived in the Wimmera all their life. Ultimately the event was about creating joy for the community.

Chris Sounness [03:25]:

We want our kids to think it’s a great place to live, grow up, but also that they can see some educational opportunities and they can see some great career opportunities locally.

Chan Uoy [03:37]:

I think the Drought Resilience Plan is really important for the area because you need a backup plan. You know, when you’re too dependent on agriculture, which is what the region is all based on, you need plan B.

Chris Sounness [03:47]:

Our Plan clearly articulated how we can build that resilience in our towns. Drought, I suppose, is what brings to the surface, some of the underpinning challenges our communities face. And often we try and tackle those challenges in the middle of drought, which is actually possibly the most challenging times to tackle it. And that’s why this program I’m so excited about and the funding from the Federal government, because it’s actually doing the preparation work, tackling it when we’ve got a chance to think about it, rather than actually under the pressure of trying to respond.

[Video ends]

[Video begins]

Chris Sounness [00:26]:

The Future Drought Fund, Regional Drought Resilience program for the Wimmera Southern Mallee, I think is all about preparation. Resilience is about preparation, not the response.

Dr Cathy Tischler [00:36]:

A lot of the resilience work that’s been done to date has focused on the land and to an extent agriculture, which I think is really important. But we’ve gotta challenge our thinking in that space a little bit more and look at how we create resilient communities as a whole. I think we’ve actually got to do more to prepare all the people in our communities for times of climate variability.

Chris Sounness [00:59]:

The biggest challenge in our community isn’t actually the farming systems. We have 23 small towns under a thousand people, and they’re the ones that are most impacted because when the drought hits, the farmers spend tend to spend less money locally.

Dr Cathy Tischler [01:13]:

Small business owners are very independently resilient, but we also felt that small businesses experienced significant hardship through the millennial drought and other drought periods in our recent past. And we felt that they were largely expected to get on with business on their own. And a number of them spoke about other businesses that had had folded up and left the area during times of drought.

Chan Uoy [01:47]:

The next drought is around the corner. We know that. So as a business owner, I guess we’ve, you know, had to diversify. So for example, we’re not just a gift shop, we are also, you know, wine bar, we also accommodation. So we have to be flexible and versatile to adjust to the circumstances, the crisis and the environment. Also, as a community member, you need to support each other, boost morale and have community engagement, and also create activities that people can forget the hardships for a while.

Dr Cathy Tischler [02:19]:

A really important consideration for us going forward is how do we maintain the vibrancy and the diversity of business in our community when we’re experiencing periods of drought and we’ve got that localised cash flow tightening?

Chan Uoy [02:34]:

My first time coming to Dimboola from Melbourne, I really thought, where’s everyone? How do I bring customers to a sleepy town? The goal was to create something really quite bold, quite out there, quite imaginative. So I came up with a steampunk event. Dimboola was a 19th century railway town. It’s got the architecture, it’s got the intimacy of the street scape to host a street party. We had nearly 4,000 people. We had three stages, 12 bands. We had a multicultural flash mob from the Wimmera Development Association. So 55 different cultures performed the Time Walk flash mob. That was quite phenomenal according to locals who had lived in the Wimmera all their life. Ultimately the event was about creating joy for the community.

Chris Sounness [03:25]:

We want our kids to think it’s a great place to live, grow up, but also that they can see some educational opportunities and they can see some great career opportunities locally.

Chan Uoy [03:37]:

I think the Drought Resilience Plan is really important for the area because you need a backup plan. You know, when you’re too dependent on agriculture, which is what the region is all based on, you need plan B.

Chris Sounness [03:47]:

Our Plan clearly articulated how we can build that resilience in our towns. Drought, I suppose, is what brings to the surface, some of the underpinning challenges our communities face. And often we try and tackle those challenges in the middle of drought, which is actually possibly the most challenging times to tackle it. And that’s why this program I’m so excited about and the funding from the Federal government, because it’s actually doing the preparation work, tackling it when we’ve got a chance to think about it, rather than actually under the pressure of trying to respond.

[Video ends]