In the Illawarra Shoalhaven an acceleration in the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as fire and flood has resulted in substantial threats to our communities, major damage to critical local and regional infrastructure, enormous strain on local government finances and deep-seated trauma for communities and first responders.

In recognition of this the Illawarra Shoalhaven Joint Organisation secured funding under the joint Commonwealth / NSW Government National Partnership Agreement on Disaster Risk Reduction to investigate a series of measures to identify and address our region’s exposure to disaster risk.

A major part of the work was preparation of an evidence-based review – Addressing the implications of Severe Weather Events on the Local and Regional Road Network.  This review has now been released and highlights the particular challenges for road infrastructure in the Illawarra Shoalhaven region generated by geographic issues specific to our region.  It draws upon actual lived experience arising from the devastating natural disasters and, taking lessons learnt from those disasters, offers detailed recommendations for positive change to decision-making in the future.

The review also accessed knowledge gained from assessing the natural disaster impacts affecting communities and Councils across NSW and demonstrates the advantage of sharing many of the lessons learnt from multiple disasters to better address common challenges.  The review is therefore very much an advocacy document with powerful, if at times confronting, messages for all levels of Government.

There is no one solution

Our existing local road network has significant legacy challenges created by funding levels, construction methods, location and topography which make it vulnerable to damage during natural disasters and severe weather events.

The review identifies that there is no one solution to these challenges.  It therefore identifies a suite of measures to improve the resilience of the road network to natural disasters and severe weather events.

These measures include:

1. Improved infrastructure resilience and network management planning

2. A greater focus on proactive maintenance and cyclic road renewal (especially road surfacing) by all Councils

3. Improved recording of disaster events including impacts on the community and infrastructure at the time of the natural disaster

4. Increased and more efficient Government to Government funding models that provide (a) improved funding certainty and (b) more realistic ongoing funding levels aligned to the scale and growth of the local road network under Councils care and control, indexed to account for the increasing cost of road related construction and maintenance

5. A concerted effort to build the skills and capacity within the Local Government and public works sector.

The review also makes it clear that funding needs to support “building back better”.  Replacing failed infrastructure with the same standard and form of infrastructure is no solution.

The review notes the large cash flow challenges given the scale of damage compared to the funds held in reserve by a Council.  The review therefore recommends that both the NSW and Australian Governments find easier ways to ensure a substantial proportion of funding is provided to Councils upfront to relieve this unnecessary burden on disaster impacted communities.