The Australian Journal of Emergency Management Vol. 21 ‘safer sustainable communities’ Vol 21 No 2 MAY 2006 | No.2 | May 2006 Climate variability in the land of fi re and fl ooding rain Monitoring the effectiveness of Critical issues that impact on How we use case studies incident management systems community response during in emergency services 11818 and the performance of major disasters in Australia management training Incident Management Teams GREY historical snapshot interesting websites Bureau of Meteorology http://www.bom.gov.au The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) website consists of a wealth of information covering not just weather warnings. It includes details about the Bureau itself and joint Bureau and CSIRO collaborations, as well as forecasts and observations, climate and climate change, hydrology, oceanography and aviation weather. Each individual state and territory in Australia has its own page, and there are also pages with information on global weather. In addition to the forecasts and charts there are also dynamic radar and satellite images that help track the movement of weather systems as they pass through the Australian region. © The Age Saturday Extra Picture by Cathryn Tremain The tragedy at Port Arthur occurred just after 1:00pm on Sunday 28 April 1996 shattering not only the small island state of Tasmania but the rest of Australia. The peaceful serenity of the popular tourist attraction was destroyed when a lone gunman used a military-style weapon to kill 20 people who had been enjoying refreshments in the Broad Arrow Café. He continued his shooting rampage outside, leaving behind more dead and injured. The siege continued into the following day as the gunman held hostages at a nearby cottage. In all, 35 people died and 22 suffered various forms of injury. Martin Bryant was arrested on the afternoon of 29 April 1996 and pleaded guilty to the crimes. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. Cover: Prime Minister John Howard talks with banana farmers in a destroyed plantation ten kilometres north of Innisfail, Queensland after Cyclone Larry devastated the surrounding areas in far North Queensland, 22 March 2006. SMH Picture by ANDREW TAYLOR Contents ‘safer sustainable communities’ Vol 21 No 2 May 2006 The Australian Please note that contributions to the Australian Journal of Emergency Management are reviewed. Academic papers (denoted by R ) are peer reviewed to appropriate academic standards by Journal of Emergency independent, qualified experts. Management Vol. 21 No. 2, May 2006 ISSN: 1324 1540 FOREWORD 2 PUBLISHER The Australian Journal of Emergency Management Queensland emergency response capacity: policy implications for the future 3 is the official journal of Emergency Management Grant Pitman examines a range of critical issues affecting emergency management Australia and is the nation’s most highly rated impacting on community response during major disasters in Australia journal in its field. The purpose of the Journal is to build capacity in the emergency management industry in Australia. It provides access to The case study method and management learning: Making the most of a strong information and knowledge for an active story telling tradition in emergency services management education 11 emergency management research community Mark Wall considers the use of case studies in emergency services and practitioners of emergency management. management training EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Director General, Blazer to the Rescue! The role of puppetry in enhancing fire prevention and Emergency Management Australia. preparedness for young children 17 AJEM ADVISORY COMMITTEE John Lidstone reports on a study into the use of puppetry performances for Christine Jenkinson, Emergency Management children to enhance their knowledge of fire safety Australia Roger Jones, TEM Consultants, Mt Macedon Counting women in the Australian fire services 29 Chas Keys, former NSW state Emergency Service Merilyn Childs argues that there are inadequacies in current data reporting Graham Dwyer, Department of Justice, Victoria Cate Moore, Emergency Management Australia mechanisms and there is an urgent need for the inclusion of productive Prof Jennifer McKay, University of South diversity in the fire services Australia Graeme Nicholas, Department of Transport Property Rights: returning personal possessions after disasters 35 and Regional Services, Queensland Anne Eyre and Lucy Payne investigate some key issues relating to the recovery David Parsons, Sydney Water Corporation and return of property following mass death in disasters Michael Tarrant, Emergency Management Australia Monitoring the performance of wildfire incident management teams in PUBLISHER & EDITORIAL TEAM real time 40 Grey Worldwide Canberra Geoff Conway describes how wildfire response agencies in Victoria monitor Manager, Chris Robey the effectiveness of incident management systems and the performance of Editor, Anita Cleaver Incident Management Teams Sub-editor, Christine Belcher Design and Typesetting by Grey Worldwide The need for private dam safety assurance: a follow-up ‘model’ policy CIRCULATION from Tasmania 45 Published on the last day of August, November, February and May each year. Copies are McKay and Pisaniello provide a follow-up policy paper on private dam safety distributed quarterly without charge to subscribers throughout Australia and overseas. Climate variability in the land of fire and flooding rain 52 Kiem, Franks and Verdon examine the relationship between multi-temporal COPYRIGHT Material in The Australian Journal of climate variability and the risk of floods and bushfires Emergency Management is protected under the Commonwealth Copyright Act 1968. Dealing with the Tsunami dead: unprecedented international co-operation 57 No material may be reproduced in part or Joseph Scanlon reports on the first major research into cross-cultural handling in whole without written consent from the copyright holders. The views in this journal of the deceased after mass death incidents are not necessarily the views of Emergency Management Australia. In Profile 62 SUBMISSIONS & SUBSCRIPTIONS NOTES FROM THE FIELD 64 The Australian Journal of Emergency Management welcomes submissions. Please EM UPDATE 65 contact us on [email protected] for a copy of our Contributors’ Guidelines. Articles for BOOK REVIEW 67 publication may be forwarded to: Interesting Websites inside back cover The Australian Journal of Emergency Management Main Road MT MACEDON VIC 3441 Tel: (02) 6295 3662 Email: [email protected] or fax 03 5421 5272 Or visit us online at www.ema.gov.au/ajem For your free subscription contact us on the above email. The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 21 No. 2, May 2006 FOREWORD National Emergency Management Plan a step closer for catastrophic disasters Tropical Cyclone Larry’s category 5 impact on Northern This plan, currently being prepared by the Australian Queensland, while not classified as nationally Emergency Management Committee (AEMC), would catastrophic, has certainly had a severe impact on the include rapid provision of fundamental necessities such community, economy and infrastructure of the region. as food, shelter, medical and financial services to the Australian community in the event of a catastrophic In recent times, Australians have witnessed disaster. The plan would support the National unimaginable scenes of devastation and human misery Emergency Protocol as adopted by COAG on 10 associated with the South Asian earthquake and February this year. For those AJEM readers who like tsunami, Hurricane Katrina across the southern US and definitions, a catastrophic disaster is one beyond any the massive earthquake in Pakistan. These were the one government’s ability to cope in terms of response worst of the natural disasters that rocked the world this and recovery arrangements. decade, not to mention the human-caused incidents we cannot forget. In considering the report, the Ministerial Council agreed that jurisdictions should undertake further work on Mercifully, we have not experienced such devastation on the agreed priorities identified from the Catastrophic our shores. These events have however, made Australian Disasters Review, with the intention of enhancing emergency managers wonder how we would cope with Australia’s emergency management capability and such disasters if one was to occur in Australia. capacity. These questions have been contemplated by the All of this work is just an extension of the excellent emergency management sector in the Review of emergency planning work already being undertaken Australia’s Ability to Respond and Recover from Catastrophic across the emergency sector in Australia. However, Disasters. The review commenced in 2004 following I believe it will bring an entirely new perspective to a recommendation from the Council of Australian attitudes about disasters that impact on our nation’s Governments (COAG) in its report Natural Disasters wide range of communities and mark a milestone in in Australia; Reforming mitigation, relief and recovery Australia’s disaster preparedness. arrangements. This review was then expanded after Boxing Day 2004 to include reference to tsunami issues. A national working group, formed to review the COAG report, had its recommendations considered at a special meeting in April 2006, of the Augmented Australasian Police Ministers’ Council in Melbourne, chaired by the Trevor Clement Attorney-General. As a way forward, the nine Ministers A/Director General with emergency management