tathra — it’s in our nature · ‘tathra – it’s in our nature’ is the theme of an ongoing...

Tathra

It’s in our Nature

A Community’s experience of a bushfire impact and recovery This Report details the events of the Tathra and District Fire, which occurred on

18 March, 2018, with a focus on the impact on tourism and businesses in a small rural, coastal New South Wales town in Australia.

‘Tathra – It’s in our Nature’ is the theme of an ongoing advertising campaign aimed at attracting visitors to the beauty of Tathra and surrounds, its stunning environment and its generous people. “Stay in Nature, Play in Nature”. Campaigning focuses on the destination brand of ‘immersion in nature’ and continues to be supported by the efforts of all stakeholders. The Tathra Instagram page @visittathra now features some of the region’s most stunning images.

‘Tathra is open for business’ was a campaign to attract visitors back to the region following a bushfire on 18 March, 2018 which destroyed 15% of the homes and 30% of the tourist accommodation within the town. The campaign featured local people talking about why Tathra is a great place to live. It reinforced that the heart of the town and the surrounding natural beauty were still here. It also reached out to all the people and communities in the Sapphire Coast region and around Australia that supported Tathra in its hour of need. Many did so in recognition that “it could have been our town”.

This publication aims to do what is also in Tathra’s nature, and that is to give back. To reach out to people, businesses and communities that helped Tathra to get back on its feet, by sharing our journey, so that others might learn from our experience.

Thank you all.

_________________________________________

Notes:

1. The Tathra & District Fire of 18 March, 2018 impacted on the communities of Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge and Tathra. This report focusses on business and tourism impact and recovery thus its primary focus is on Tathra.

2. This publication does not review the fire event and actions taken. Publications that have done this to date include:

• Keelty, M. June 2018. The Bega Valley Fires Independent Review, Office of Emergency Management, Department of Justice, NSW Government.

• Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, May 2018. Quick Response Report: Tathra Bushfires, Business Cooperative Research Centres Programme, Department of Industry, Innovation & Science.

Tathra — It’s in our Nature

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AUTHORSHIP & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research project is part of the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project, the result of a partnership between the Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce, Bega Valley Shire Council, Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing and About Regional.

Appreciation goes to the businesses who participated in this research, sharing their experiences of the Tathra & District Fire, how prepared they were prior to the event, and the impact of the fire on their businesses in particular, and more broadly, tourism in the area. The learnings in this report emerge directly from their narratives and suggestions.

Sincere thanks must go to Tathra resident, Mark Darby, who initiated this project, and conducted the majority of interviews with businesses; and to David Beirman, Tourism Management Discipline Group, University of Technology Sydney,who also conducted some interviews and provided guidance on interview questions and evaluation of the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project.

In September 2019, the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project was announced the winner of the NSW Resilient Australia Awards 2019 (Business Category).

Report written by Suzette Fullerton and Mark Darby. Report edited by Ian Campbell. Desktop Publishing by Kate Howarth.

© Tathra & District Business Chamber 2019

ISBN 978-0-6486600-0-2 (Print) ISBN 978-0-6486600-1-9 (PDF)

This project is funded by a Commonwealth and NSW Government grant under the Community Resilience Innovation Program 2018–19.


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Front page image – ‘Embers from Heaven’: A collection of mandalas on bark, artwork using texta and coloured pencil on photocopy paper, black card, glue-stick, and burnt bark from the Tathra Wildlife Reserve, works completed by members of the Tathra Firebirds. ‘Embers from Heaven’ was one of several ongoing projects available at the Tathra Firebirds ‘Get Creative’ art and craft sessions held between July and November, 2018.

“The ember attack on the town on March 18, 2018 was fearsome, the hot gale-force winds scattered burning sparks and fireballs well ahead of the fire front. Some homes that survived the initial fire were later destroyed by embers, skipping some streets and landing on others. The embers crawled under eaves and decks and garden mulch and flared up hours later, and parts of the town and forests were still being water-bombed days after people returned. The project reclaims these embers; we have created something colourful and beautiful, using mandalas as tiny rose windows to help us heal.” — Tathra Firebirds.


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SUMMARY Tathra, on the picturesque Sapphire Coast of New South Wales is a small, strong, resilient town and community.

Like many other small towns, it has a town hall, churches, primary school, service clubs, hotel, restaurants and cafes, holiday accommodation, and small businesses servicing the local community. It is bordered by the natural beauty of national parks, state forest and stunning coastline. It welcomes visitors from cities, country regions and overseas. Tourism is the life-blood of the local economy – it employs many local people. The population doubles or triples in the peak holiday periods. These seasons often coincide with the peak bushfire season.

This could be the same description for many towns in coastal Australia.

The bushfire that burnt through the town of Tathra occurred only ten days prior to the peak tourism period for Tathra, Easter and March-April school holidays.

This report seeks to ask —

• What can we learn from Tathra’s experience of the bushfire? • From a community and business perspective, how could we better prepare? • How did Tathra recover? • Having been through the experience, what would we suggest to other

businesses and communities?

This report focuses on the ‘lived experience’ as told by business owners — their frank and honest experiences. It also includes comments from emergency services agencies, partner organisations, community representatives, school students and community groups. It is community voices sharing their experience of the Tathra & District fire — for the benefit of others.


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Key learnings:

Community Leadership ……………………………………………………………p. 28

Preparedness ………………………………………………………………………. p. 84

Recovery ……………………………………………………………………………. p. 98

Recommendations for Business ………………………………………………… p.102

Community ………………………………………………………………………… p.153

Note: Quotes formatted such as this, were obtained directly from the Tathra & District business owners/operators as part of the

Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project.


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FOREWORD – IAN CAMPBELL

The last 18 months have been an extraordinary chapter in the Bega Valley’s story.

The Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge, and Tathra Bushfire of March 2018, was soon followed by the vast Yankees Gap Bushfire during August and September of the same year.

Each person involved has a unique and different experience, one that is still being processed, and one the experts say will always play a part in our lives.

This report looks to capture broad brush strokes of the Tathra experience, with a bent towards business and tourism operators, part of the story that perhaps hasn’t been told.

You will recognise elements of your story, your contribution, your experience within the pages of this report. You will feel pride in yourself and your community. You will feel the heat and fear of that day again. But you will be grateful this work has been done.

Sadly, our community won’t be the last to experience bushfire or other natural disasters. This report starts to put in to play the Bega Valley experience in the hope those who follow, will learn from us and be able to move forward because we have been there before them.

We have all been touched by the generosity of many during this time. There is a real hope that this report ‘pays that forward’ and makes sure the lessons learnt and the experience gained is shared so that we are all stronger and better prepared to face the next test.

Regards Ian Campbell About Regional


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CONTENTS

Table of Contents AUTHORSHIP & ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................ iii

SUMMARY ............................................................................................................. V Key learnings: ....................................................................................................... vi

TATHRA — IT’S IN OUR NATURE ................................................................ VII FOREWORD – IAN CAMPBELL ........................................................................ vii

CONTENTS ....................................................................................................... VIII

CHAPTER 1: TATHRA & SAPPHIRE COAST ................................................. 1 1.1 The importance of tourism to Tathra ............................................................. 3 1.2 Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce ...................................................... 4 1.3 Tathra Wordcloud ........................................................................................... 6

CHAPTER 2: THE FIRE ...................................................................................... 7 2.1 Conditions on the day ..................................................................................... 7 2.2 What Happened .............................................................................................. 8

2.2.1 Wind Change ............................................................................................ 11 2.3 Evacuation of Tathra .................................................................................... 15 2.4 Evacuation Centres ....................................................................................... 18

2.4.1 Bermagui Surf Club ................................................................................. 19 2.4.2 Bega Showgrounds ................................................................................... 20

2.5 Town lockdown .............................................................................................. 24 2.6 Media ............................................................................................................. 26

CHAPTER 3: THE PROJECT ........................................................................... 31 3.1 Methodology .................................................................................................. 32 3.2 Outcomes from the Project ........................................................................... 33

CHAPTER 4: THE INITIAL RESPONSE – FIRST TWO WEEKS .............. 34 4.1 Government and Council Response .............................................................. 35 4.2 The Recovery Team and Structure ............................................................... 37 4.3 Community Response ................................................................................... 38 4.4 Business Response ........................................................................................ 39

4.4.1 Easter Campaign — ‘Tathra is open for business’ .................................. 39


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CHAPTER 5: THE RECOVERY ....................................................................... 45 5.1 Communication ............................................................................................. 46

5.1.1 Community Meetings .............................................................................. 46 5.1.2 Newsletters & Online Communication ................................................... 47 5.1.3 Community Led Recovery Workshops .................................................... 50

5.2 Health and Wellbeing ................................................................................... 53 5.2.1 Tathra & District Fire Recovery Support Service Centre ....................... 53 5.2.2 Red Cross ................................................................................................. 58

5.3 Clean Up / Environment / Rebuild ............................................................... 60 5.3.1 General waste clean up ........................................................................... 61 5.3.2 Asbestos Contaminated Waste ................................................................ 62 5.3.3 Team Rubicon .......................................................................................... 63 5.3.4 Replanting / Environment ....................................................................... 66 5.3.5 Rebuild Forum – The Pathway Home ..................................................... 68

5.4 Donations ...................................................................................................... 68 5.4.1 The Mayoral Appeal................................................................................. 72 5.4.2 Band Together ......................................................................................... 76

5.5 First month – Business perspective ............................................................. 78

CHAPTER 6: REFLECTION & KEY LEARNINGS FOR BUSINESS ........ 80 6.1 Business Preparedness for a natural disaster ............................................. 80

6.1.1 Emergency Evacuation Plans .................................................................. 80 6.1.2 Business Evacuation Drills ..................................................................... 81 6.1.3 Business Continuity Planning................................................................. 82 6.1.4 Key learnings on preparedness ............................................................... 84

6.2 Personal impact on business owners/operators ........................................... 85 6.3 The impact on businesses ............................................................................. 90

6.3.1 Rapid survey immediately post fire ........................................................ 90 6.3.2 In-depth assessment of businesses ......................................................... 91 6.3.3 On business recovery ............................................................................... 97 6.3.4 Key learnings on business recovery ........................................................ 98

6.4. Insurance ....................................................................................................... 99 6.5 Recommendations for business .................................................................. 102 6.6 Reflection on the Fire .................................................................................. 104

6.6.1 Reflection from a community perspective ............................................. 104 6.6.2 Rural Fire Service (RFS) ....................................................................... 105 6.6.3 NSW Police ............................................................................................. 108 6.6.4 Independent Review of Bega Valley Fires, June 2018 ......................... 110 6.6.5 Yankees Gap Fire event – August 2018 ................................................ 112 6.6.6 Improvements for Emergency Management in Tathra ........................ 113


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CHAPTER 7: CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS .... 115 7.1 What challenges did we face? ..................................................................... 115

7.1.1 Challenges for myself ............................................................................ 115 7.1.2 Challenges for my business ................................................................... 116 7.1.3 Challenges for my community ............................................................... 117

7.2 What were the Opportunities? ................................................................... 118 7.3 A final word ................................................................................................. 119

CHAPTER 8: PARTNER ORGANISATIONS ............................................... 121 8.1 Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce – President, Carmen Risby ..... 121 8.2 Bega Valley Shire Council – General Manager, Leanne Barnes .............. 124 8.3 Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing – Managing Director, Anthony Osborne ........................................................................................ 126

THE COMMUNITY’S RESPONSE TO RECOVERY .................................... 127

CHAPTER 9: COMMUNITY SUPPLEMENT ............................................... 128 CS 1 The Community ........................................................................................ 128

CS 1.1 Community Reference Group ............................................................. 128 CS 1.2 Tathra Surf Life Saving Club ............................................................. 130 CS 1.3 Tathra Post Office ............................................................................... 131 CS 1.4 Tathra Lions Club ............................................................................... 133 CS 1.5 Tathra Public School ........................................................................... 134 CS 1.6 Tathra Mountain Bike Club ............................................................... 137

CS 2 Community Groups & Initiatives ............................................................ 138 CS 2.1 Tathra Firebirds.................................................................................. 138 CS 2.2 Book Love for Tathra .......................................................................... 140 CS 2.3 Stories of March 18 (SM18) ................................................................ 143 CS 2.4 Tathra Pub Choir ................................................................................ 145 CS 2.5 Christmas Lights for Tathra .............................................................. 146 CS 2.6 Tathra Moments ................................................................................. 146 CS 2.7 Twelve month anniversary ................................................................. 148 CS 2.8 Tathra Garden Forum ........................................................................ 151

CS 3 Key learnings from a Community perspective ........................................ 153

APPENDICES .................................................................................................... 154 Appendix A — Tathra: Demographics, Population, Size ................................. 154 Appendix B — Timeline of Bega Valley Fires and Resources Allocated .......... 156 Appendix C — Report References ..................................................................... 157

CHAPTER 1: TATHRA & SAPPHIRE COAST

Photo collage courtesy www.visittathra.com.au


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Tathra is a seaside village set on the Sapphire Coast of New South Wales, Australia, approximately midway between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Tathra is said to mean "beautiful country" or "place of wild cats" in local Aboriginal language.

The town is a close-knit community, home to about 1,600 people well supported by established community clubs and groups. The population grows to over 5,000 people in peak tourism periods.

Residents, if not employed in Tathra, tend to work in the regional hub of Bega (17 kms away), as well as throughout the south-east region of the state. The town has a slightly older population, with many long-term residents and retirees choosing the coastal lifestyle (see Appendix A).

The Surf Club is a central hub within the town and one of the oldest Surf Life Saving Clubs in Australia, operating for over 100 years. The heritage-listed Tathra Wharf, built in the early 1860’s and saved from demolition by the local community in 1980s, is a focal point for residents and visitors.

Tourists are primarily attracted by the region’s natural beauty. The town is surrounded by coastal wilderness and bush-fringed beaches with Mimosa Rocks National Park to the north, Bournda National Park to the south and Tathra Forest Reserve to the west. The Tathra Beach, backed by nature reserve and parks, stretches 3km north from the town to Mogareeka Inlet, where the Bega River opens to the sea.

These surrounds and the sapphire colour of the region’s ocean attract surfers, boaters, hikers, mountain bike riders, whale watchers, fishing groups, families and beach lovers.

“We all know we live in a great place. Post fire, my biggest reflection is that it did bring everyone together and prove how good

a place this is.”


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1.1 The importance of tourism to Tathra

Tourism is vital to the township of Tathra with the town more than tripling during the peak summer season. The Tathra Chamber of Commerce indicated that 75% of its local businesses provide or support tourism services, making tourism the dominant economic driver for the town.

Tathra Beach. Courtesy of Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing


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Tathra is also important to the region, providing 18% of the tourist accommodation beds in the region (3,714 of a total of 25,400 beds). It is also a key tourism link on the coastal road to Mimosa Rocks National Park and the town of Bermagui to the north – one of the key destinations on the Sydney to Melbourne Coastal Drive.

https://www.visitnsw.com/things-to-do/drives-and-road-trips/sydney-melbourne-coastal-drive

“Some people have a view that tourism isn’t necessarily front and centre as being part of the Tathra economy. It absolutely is.”

As Dr David Beirman from the University of Technology, Sydney notes:-

“At its heart, resilience, as it applies to tourism destinations is the ability to recover from and adapt to shocks and events which compromise the reputation, marketability and desirability of a destination.

The widespread national and international publicity reported and disseminated by traditional and social media created a perception that Tathra was all but destroyed as a tourism destination. The timing of the fire led to a rush of tourist cancellations during one of Tathra’s peak tourist seasons, Easter 2018 in early April.”

1.2 Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce

Tathra’s Chamber of Commerce comprises a small group of dedicated business owners, who work hard at promoting tourism in conjunction with Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing and Destination NSW. Slogans such as ‘Tathra – let nature take its course’, ‘Art is in our nature’ and ‘No other oysters in NSW are grown in such pristine wilderness as Tathra Oysters’ dominate promotional material.

The majority of locals are employed by businesses involved in the Chamber of Commerce. Representatives and members of the Chamber were involved in a range of committees and working groups to aid in the towns’ recovery from the bushfire.

“I feel I have got more out it (the Chamber) than what I have had to put into it.”


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“There were opportunities that came our way (following the fire) and you have to be accepting of them.”

“Being involved with the Chamber does come with a lot of responsibility, but it also comes with a lot of opportunity.

A big networking opportunity. There’s so much strength in numbers. When you have 60 businesses all asking for something

you have so much more chance of getting attention than one person acting alone.”

“It’s very challenging running a hospitality business in Australia, because there is a very small world now, and we’re not competing

with Port Macquarie or the Gold Coast, we’re competing with Thailand, Bali, Fiji, and their input costs are very, very different to

ours.”

“The tourist season has gotten longer and longer. It used to be quiet in winter, but now they are coming all year through.”

Key tourism links to Tathra & the Sapphire Coast include the following —

www.sapphirecoast.com.au/the-region/towns/tathra

www.visittathra.com.au

Facebook — https://www.facebook.com/visittathra/

Instagram — https://instagram.com/visittathra

http://www.sapphirecoast.com.au/

http://www.visittathra.com/

https://www.facebook.com/visittathra/

https://instagram.com/visittathra?fbclid=IwAR24i8nphbKaoaT0lYz2qiNRFzbGet9mXFQnVWbs1C8rr4OwT1I006wbDo8


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1.3 Tathra Wordcloud


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CHAPTER 2: THE FIRE

2.1 Conditions on the day

“It was 36 degrees at half past ten in the morning, and the wind was blowing fairly strong at that point. It was 61 degrees here at its

peak (of the fire). I had to keep spraying myself down.”

The fire danger rating for the 18 March 2018 was the fourth highest on record for that area.1

The Bureau of Meteorology Daily Weather Observations for Bega Valley on Sunday 18 March 2018 indicate the following —

Observation Measurement Comment Minimum Temperature

15.1 degrees

Maximum Temperature

38.6 degrees (highest maximum temperature for month)

Mm rain 0.2mm Maximum wind gust

76 km/h NW at 1:37 p.m.

(highest wind gusts for month)

Relative Humidity 79%

“It was such a hot day…… then a bit of smoke started coming over, and we all started glowing a weird kind of orange tone.”

More than half of NSW was declared a Total Fire Ban on that day, including Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Far South Coast, Monaro Alpine,

1 Bega Valley Fires Independent Review. The Fire Danger Rating (FDR) is determined by the Fire Danger Index (FDI). The FDI was developed at CSIRO in the 1960s to measure the degree of danger of fire in Australian forests. The FDI is a combination of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and drought. An FDI of 1 (Low-Moderate) means that the fire will not burn, or will burn so slowly that it will be easily controlled, whereas an FDI in excess of 100 (Catastrophic) means that the fire will burn so fast and so hot that it is uncontrollable. The FDI is calculated by the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) for each region.


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Southern Ranges, Central Ranges, North Western, Lower Central West Plains, Southern Slopes and Eastern Riverina regions.

The Tathra fire condition was described by some as being “catastrophic”. However, it is important to note that the Fire Conditions on that day for the region were set at Severe (Index 50-74), with Extreme (Index 75-99) and Catastrophic (Index 100+) being the higher ratings. For comparison, the conditions of the Black Friday fires of 1939 were used as the example of a 100 rating. The Victorian Black Saturday fires of 2009 reached ratings of 120 to 190.

The outcomes from the Tathra Fire were however considered a catastrophe, or catastrophic. This is a rating given by the Insurance Council of Australia based on impact, ensuring that claims affected by the fire would get priority attention and also triggers disaster funding being made available.

Given these forecast conditions, some accommodation providers were warning visitors the night before the fire and were proactive in:

• asking them to clean up their sites and pack away things that might get blown away,

• charging their UHF radios in case they were required, • visiting camp sites first thing on the morning of the fire, • sending out group text messages to guests about weather conditions and

preparedness.

In some cases all customers had been evacuated before midday, well before any official call.

2.2 What Happened

The Tathra Fire started at Reedy Swamp (10km NW of Tathra) near Bega in the Bega Valley Shire Council Local Government Area on 18 March, 2018. It is believed that the fire started as a result of a tree falling across a power line.2

2 Preliminary investigations completed by the NSW Rural Fire Service fire investigators found that the likely cause of the fire was from electrical infrastructure on Reedy Swamp Road. At the time of writing this Report, the outcomes of a Coroner’s report following a joint investigation by Sapphire Coast Police District and the State Crime Command into the fire are pending.


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The first reported call to ‘000’ was at 12:28 p.m. at which time the fire was given an initial warning of ‘Advice’ level. (For an official timeline of emergency calls and deployment of fire fighting resources, see Appendix B).

Several businesses in Tathra reported seeing smoke earlier that morning –

Person A: “Here’s a good one that I’m very reluctant to talk about because people in Tathra complain they had no warning. I knew

about that fire at 12.40 p.m.

Person B: “My wife was calling the Rural Fire Service (RFS) at 11.30 a.m. because we had been through a similar fire in

Canberra.”

Person A: “So for people to think they had ten minutes notice, they had their heads in the sand. Part of our evacuation plan is

understanding conditions on every single day. We knew it was a severe fire day.”

Power outages (reported by businesses at around 12:30 p.m.) impacted on radios, internet and mobile phone networks, making it difficult for public messages and people to verify the whereabouts of their neighbours, family and friends, and the exact location of the fire.

Fanned by strong north-westerly winds, the fire quickly moved in a south-easterly direction, burning through 1250 hectares of bush and private property.

The fire was upgraded to ‘Watch and Act’ level at approximately 2.00 p.m. At this point, there were thirteen reported fires across the Bega Valley.

“Probably around a quarter to eleven I saw the smoke, and then within two hours, I could see flames on the horizon, so it had come

from Reedy Swamp to here in about two hours. By two o’clock, most of the ridge was ablaze and then the fire brigade started coming in

and the helicopters arrived.”


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In regards to the speed of the fire, Tathra resident & business owner reported —

“Someone came in (to the shop) at about two o’clock and raced in to grab a paper and said he was going home to pack up. He said,

‘What are you doing here?’

I said, ‘What’s going on?’.

He said, ‘There’s a big fire coming.’

I walked out and around the corner, the wind hit me right in the face, like a blast furnace.”

By 3.40 p.m. the Rural Fire Service issued an ‘Emergency Warning’ as the fire had crossed the Bega River in several places and was beginning to impact on properties around Thompson Drive, Tathra. People in Thompson Drive were advised that it was ‘too late to leave’.

“I didn’t know I’d panic as much as I did, that’s for sure.”

“Spot fires just started up everywhere. We had taps running all the time, just filling up buckets and running around putting out fires.

Spraying the gas bottles constantly to keep them cool.”

The Rural Fire Service provided constant updates, and deployed Police Officers to evacuate the area threatened.

A separate fire at Coopers Gully had, by this stage, closed the Princes Highway in both directions just north of Bega – the major arterial road between Melbourne and Sydney.


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NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner reported the following day, that —

“By 5.00 p.m. the fire was burning on both sides of the Bega River, and Tathra was under heavy ember attack, starting fires in and around people’s gardens, and setting fire to homes.”

“We could see the colour of the smoke go from that orangey-glow, to black with the orangey-glow above it. It was getting closer and

closer. I said, ‘We’ll be lucky if there’s anything left by the time we get back.’”

2.2.1 Wind Change

For some, the change of wind direction from the north-west to the south was a reprieve for their business or home, but that change subsequently put others under immediate threat.

From someone who stayed behind to fight the fires —

“I knew I was going to be okay when a fireman came by and said there was going to be a southerly change at 4.30 p.m. and this was about 4.00 p.m. I only had to hold on for another half an hour and

the wind came right on the dot of 4.30 p.m. — the southerly change. It went from being 61 degrees to about 22 degrees in about

five minutes.”

This quote is from someone who evacuated to Mogareeka, north of Tathra, initially, and then onto Bermagui —

“I was talking with another guy, saying ‘The change is coming, the change is coming!’ It just stopped. It didn’t hit like one of those

southerly blusters, it just turned slowly.”


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And from another business on the Kalaru-Tathra Road —

“The only reason we are still here from my understanding, is that the wind changed direction. That’s what saved us.”

By 6.00 p.m. the fire had burnt right down to the coast, including ember attack on the historic Tathra Wharf, which was water bombed by aircraft.

By 10.00 p.m. well after the arrival of the southerly change, the fire was downgraded to ‘Watch and Act’, although there was still a lot of active fire in the area.

“In a cloud of thick smoke cars whistle through the roads

In a shower of embers

trees fall against the wind and explode in smoke and flames

People flee into safety,

Lizards scatter into rocks, Birds flutter into clouds, Fire crackles into trees.”

Jayden Holzhauser, ‘When the fire met the sea’. Tathra Public School.

“I’ve never known a noisier day in my life….. complete sensory overload, sight, smell, hearing, just the noises, the choppers, the

brigades, the sirens, the noise of the flames with all the smoke alarms going off, gas bottles blowing up left, right and centre. It was a calamity. The sky going dark, the smoke and embers and

choppers going sideways with water bags hanging at 45 degrees.”

‘It’s funny at the time, you just do what you have to do. I didn’t really panic at any point. Just took it as it comes, knowing I could

go if I needed to.”


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“There were lots of hoses lying around ‘loaded’, they’d just been dropped. I just gave a squirt here and there on gardens. It was an

eerie feeling. It reminded me of an Arnie Schwarzenegger movie. There wasn’t a car in town, there wasn’t a dog in town, there wasn’t

a street light on. You could see orange flames all over town, little bits of flame everywhere…. and in the sky, you could see red and

blue lights flashing. It was like Armageddon, end of the world type of thing.”

On Monday 19 March, multiple schools in the area were closed due to students and staff being affected by the fire, including Bega High School, Tathra Public School, Tanja Public School and the Bournda Environmental Education Centre.

The fire was declared to be ‘Contained’ by the NSW Rural Fire Service approximately 54 hours after the fire started; just as the first of residents were allowed to return to Tathra as part of a staged re-entry. Many streets and houses were off-limits amid fears of asbestos, live power, falling trees and crumbling structures.

The fire destroyed 65 homes and 35 caravans/cabins. An additional 48 homes were damaged.3

It is important to note, that no lives were lost, and many homes were ‘saved’ through the efforts of firefighting services as well as some local residents who stayed to fight, and also tourists holidaying in Tathra at the time, who were brave enough to put out spot fires around the town.

“There were so many people saying, ‘This place is gone, that place is gone’… and there were others saying, ‘No, no… I saw that, and it

was fine.’ We didn’t want to believe, we were coming back expecting the worst, just so we didn’t get a massive shock.”

3 RFS Media Release 21 March, 2018.


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Tathra Fire & Wharf, by Lily Hayden, ‘When the fire met the sea’, Tathra Public School.


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2.3 Evacuation of Tathra

Many of the interviewees talked in-depth about the evacuation of the township of Tathra on the day of 18 March, 2018.

Some businesses evacuated their guests earlier than any perceived immediate threat to life and property —

“Once it (the wind) starts swirling, I’d out everyone. It’s not worth arguing about. Just get everyone out. We had 67 guests in place,

they were evacuated by about 10.30 – 11.00 that morning. We had evacuated everybody before they even drove down here and said,

‘You’ve got to get everyone out’. They’ve already gone! There weren’t any lives to save.”

“We got our fire plan and our evacuation plan out, and by then, if you don’t know what’s on it, you’ve got Buckley’s trying to figure it

out, because you are almost incredulous, you can’t even really communicate.”

“You realise you have a duty of care, and there are people here counting on you, you’ve got to get them all out.”


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Business owners commented on their reflection of the evacuation —

“People were looking for guidance. That’s something I remember.”

“They had to evacuate people down onto the beach… and older people… I’m not sure if that’s the best place to be… you’ve got all the smoke. They actually had to bring some people back into the

Surf Club because of the smoke.”

“I believed we were in a safe place, and then basically, we just got told by the Authorities, right, bang, in no uncertain terms, get them

out of here now, and go that way (towards Mogareeka).”

“We got everybody inside (the Surf Club), and the Police started coming and yelling at us to just get out, because that’s when the

wind changed.”

“The elements of the evacuation, which, if you talk to the various agencies, it’s the Police who have that final responsibility, and I

guess a question as to what training had the Police had and what was their plan and process, and could that have been better?”

“I’m certainly sure they (the Police) would have learnt a lot from it themselves. They were doing the best that they can with their

resources, and their resources would have been stretched so far thin. I guess at that point in time, their main focus is dealing with

the fire and the security of the residents here, saving life.”


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The following quotes depict people’s thoughts as they were evacuating the town —

“We did leave here thinking we’d probably come back in an hour or so…. I probably never expected the nature of what did occur to occur the way it unfolded. I never thought about leaving on the

Sunday and not getting back here until the Wednesday – that wasn’t in my line of thought. We thought we’d just move out for the

interim and move back in in an hour or two.”

“If you had to get out in a hurry, I’ve never really thought about everything you need to take.”

“We didn’t pack anything, we just threw the kids and the pets in the car and took off.”

There was some criticism about the ABC Radio, being the ‘Emergency Broadcaster’, broadcasting football instead of reporting the immediate risk faced by individuals during the fire event.

“We listened to the radio (on the day of the fire), but there was nothing. The Sydney football was still on the radio (whilst we were

evacuating from Tathra)!”

Many interviewees expressed confusion on the day about the evacuation process. This comment from one business owner who welcomed people evacuating from other areas —

“We weren’t exiting anybody……people were coming here. They weren’t quite sure what was going to happen. People were arriving

who had been evacuating from other places I think.”


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People who evacuated on the advice of Authorities but regretted doing so —

“If some people hadn’t of defied the evacuation order, pressed with the same situation again, would I evacuate? I don’t know whether I

would. I think I’d take my chances.”

“Once we realized we weren’t in direct impact, sprinklers were left on, we walked away. And that’s the thing that we both regret. We

walked away thinking we were as prepared as…… at the time ….. and we still walked away and we regret that. We should have

stayed.”

An overall reflection on the evacuation by one interviewee & business owner —

“Tathra was very successful (in its evacuation), but there was an element of luck within that.”

In terms of planning for possible future evacuations in the event of disasters —

“I guess……we’d probably be more aware of what we’d take with us if we were evacuating.”

2.4 Evacuation Centres

Within two hours over 1,500 residents and tourists were evacuated from Tathra along one or either of the two access roads out of town. They went 50 kms north to the small coastal town of Bermagui, or 17kms west to the regional town of Bega travelling with family, friends, strangers and a collection of many different pets and animals.


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2.4.1 Bermagui Surf Club

A spokesperson for the Bermagui Surf Club indicated that 320 people evacuated to their facility on the evening of 18 March 2018, with all persons required to register.

Disaster Welfare Services (DWS also known as Welfare Services Functional Area) deployed two Red Cross and one Department of Primary Industry personnel overnight. Family & Community Services (FACS) and Anglicare were unable to access the site overnight.

Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA) and FACS worked remotely, however no emergency accommodation bookings were made. The next morning, DWS were able to deploy twelve Red Cross and a FACS representative.

First aid was on hand, with the Country Club providing free meals for those in need. Local accommodation providers and private residents were quick to respond providing beds for all, with only twenty people deciding to sleep that night in the Surf Club.

“A RSPCA lady took all the dogs, lined them up on one side, and gave them all a bowl of food and a bowl of water. There were the most incredible people in that town (Bermagui), and I remember

saying to one lady how incredible and amazing they were, and she just said, ‘This could have been us, heading to Tathra for help.’”


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On the following day, Monday 19 March, evacuees could get a free breakfast at the Bermagui Country Club or at one of the two Cafes in town that welcomed people from Tathra and surrounds. Many of the people who stayed in Bermagui were visitors, holidaying in Tathra at the time of the fire. From a caravan park that evacuated the majority of their guests to Bermagui —

“How can I know who’s missing? Thank goodness we have a ‘Cloud-based’ system. I could connect on my phone. I found out we

had 215 adults in the Park, and I had every family’s surname, how many dogs, how many babies, all that information was on my

phone. We gathered inside and did a roll call, there was a huge portion missing. They went on a missing person’s board.”

Donations poured in to the Bermagui Surf Club until they could not accommodate more; with many people dropping off care packages for affected people. The local pharmacist assisted people with their medications on that Sunday evening and the Bega Valley Shire also provided personnel to assist as required.

Most people went to stay with family or friends and those that did not have anywhere to go were relocated on Monday afternoon by bus to the Bega Showgrounds. By 6.00 p.m. Monday 19 March, every one of the 320 evacuees to Bermagui had been relocated.

“We were at the Surf Club (in Bermagui), they were just fantastic. They had a plan, a piece of paper to put all your details on. The

process worked fantastically.”

2.4.2 Bega Showgrounds

The Rural Fire Service as the Combat Agency for the Tathra and District Fire, had the authority to request Welfare Services Functional Area (WSFA) establish an evacuation centre. The initial call came through to have a Liaison Officer (LO) at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) just before 4.00 p.m. on Sunday 18 March, 2018. The LO arrived at approximately 4.30 p.m. A request was made to open an Evacuation Centre at the Bega Showgrounds, and it was formally established at 5.30 p.m.


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People started arriving between 4.30 and 5.30 p.m. at around the same time as setting up the centre.

Approximately 1200 persons were registered at the Evacuation Centre. All WSFA partner agencies were present at the Evacuation Centre including —

• the Office of Emergency Management – Disaster Welfare, • Family & Community Services — Disaster Welfare, • Red Cross, • Salvation Army, • Adventist Development Relief Agency, • Disaster Recovery Chaplaincy Network, and • Anglicare.

Other Government support agencies such as

• NSW Health, • DPI Animal & Agriculture; • Combat Agencies (RFS and NSW Police); and • wider community agencies, for example St Vincent De Paul and Country

Women’s Association.

Joint formal briefings were provided by the Rural Fire Service and NSW Police.

As part of WSFA arrangements, the Salvation Army worked with local community agencies (i.e., the Country Women’s Association), to provide emergency catering. WSFA always prefers to source goods locally. In this instance, Bega Woolworths and Coles supermarkets also donated a portion of food items.

WSFA provided evacuees emergency accommodation locally where possible.

Each person was required to register for two main purposes —

• Disaster Victim Registration – a NSW Police responsibility to register people when they are deemed safe from an evacuation zone and their intended location; and

• Disaster Welfare Assistance Registration – including access to the evacuation centre for food, accommodation and material aid. The process used for evacuation is Register.Find.Reunite, where at it its full capacity, can help match evacuees to loved ones.


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Amidst the trauma of being evacuated and family or friends losing their homes some evacuees found the registration and paperwork process at the Evacuation Centre frustrating.

A large number of people in the Evacuation Centres were tourists, holidaying in Tathra at the time of the fire. Disaster Welfare Services also provides for stranded travellers who are unable to reach their intended destination until such time as they are able to.

“I’ve spoken to a few people that sat in the back of the Evacuation Centre. They didn’t feel like they belonged there, and everything

that was said from Authorities, was all about ‘Tathra community, community, community. Your home, your home, your home.’ They felt like they were in an Evacuation Centre, but they didn’t belong

there. Nobody was speaking to them. We had these displaced people that were really not counted as they were tourists. They don’t

belong here, they haven’t lost their home, but they may have lost their caravan and their car, but they don’t live here, and they’re

clogging up a bed that one of my friends in Tathra who lost their home should have.”

“I just feel like if we could take anything from what happened, if you’re in a tourist town that goes through a catastrophic event,

there’s going to be tourists there, and they need to be cared for on perhaps a different level. Or recognised at least. Even if someone had said to them, ‘Was anyone camping? How are you? Are you okay? Do you have any specific needs? Where is your car? Have

you got all your people with you? Do you have friends missing? Can I call your family? Do you need a phone line?’ Just

something. Their (tourists) needs are very different and specific to community members.”


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On Monday 19 March, 2019; the Bega Showgrounds still housed many people displaced from the Fire. One caravan park had approximately 200 of their guests in the Bega Evacuation Centre and wanted to work with authorities to get these people home or moved out of the area. However, to do that, guests needed to pick up their vehicles and pack up their caravans, tents, annexes and belongings. A police escort was arranged to have guests transferred back to Tathra to pack up their belongings and either return home or continue their holiday elsewhere.

The Bega Evacuation Centre remained open for the next three days providing a centre for information briefings, political and media engagement, counselling and community service support, accommodation and meals. The town was reopened in a staged way (depending on damage) from Tuesday to Wednesday. The Evacuation Centre closed on Wednesday 21 March at 8.00 p.m and all recovery support services transferred to the Council Community Centre.

Although there was an area set aside in the Bega Evacuation Centre for ‘quiet space’, this comment from one business owner —

“I was so shell shocked and unhappy, I just wanted to go into a quiet….. I just wanted my own space, so I could have a cry and not

have to talk to anybody. That whole evacuation centre is so unpleasant when you are like that.”

“The way they pulled that evacuation centre together at the Showgrounds, they really needed to be commended for that. I

understand what went on up at Bermagui from the feedback from guests, and it was brilliant.”


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2.5 Town lockdown

The day, or days directly following a fire are hazy in more ways than one. Tathra and its residents were in shock. Emotional, exhausted, evacuated, frustrated and desperate for news of their homes, family and friends.

Following the fire, access to the town was restricted for 48-72 hours from the Sunday evening to Tuesday evening, and late Wednesday for some heavily affected areas. Roadblocks on the two entry roads limited access to primarily fire fighting crews, emergency services and public utilities personnel. While the fire had been contained or stopped on Sunday evening, many house and spot fires continued to burn throughout the town. Power and many other services were out. There was concern, given the number of damaged homes scattered throughout the town, of asbestos in the air and on the ground from burnt buildings. Helicopter water bombers worked for five days after the fires, continuing to put out hots spots and fully contain the fire.

People had fled their homes and businesses at very short notice. Some business owners realised they had not even secured their premises prior to evacuating, and as has been the case in other areas affected by natural disaster events, looting was a potential risk. The NSW Police maintained a presence in Tathra in the days following as a preventative measure.

There was frustration as residents attempted to find news if their house and business was still standing. Initial reports had indicated the primary school and hotel had burnt down, which was not the case. There was initially no phone or mobile connection in the town. People were reviewing television news film footage to work out what had burnt and what had been saved. Information was trickling out through the residents who had chosen not to evacuate (estimated at around 100 people) and local emergency staff informing neighbours and friends.

Some people expressed their anger at not being able to return to their property when media and political figures were permitted to enter Tathra on the Monday. Some residents found out about their homes being destroyed from television news stories recorded in their driveway, with their burnt home in the background.

Formal assessment of the town was however being made, and by Monday afternoon residents at the evacuation centre were officially advised if their home or business had been affected. On Monday afternoon police escorted tourists into a local caravan


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park to retrieve their camping rigs and equipment to allow them to go home, or move on in their travels. A number of business owners were also escorted to secure their premises, retrieve records to pay staff, and/or turn off equipment.

On early Tuesday, several buses were arranged to take those residents who were directly impacted back into Tathra via a police escort. The bus was considered a safe option in areas that were still potentially hazardous, allowing people to see the impact of the fire on their home, street and community. Late that afternoon residents in less impacted areas were allowed to return, along with remaining tourists.

“My concern is that we do not learn from Tathra’s experience. The evacuation, town lockdown and repatriation of town residents and

businesses was traumatic for many. How could we (collectively) have done better?”

“They cordoned off the road here, so I had to get permission to come in, because I was a business owner, to check it out.”

“We couldn’t get in here to the wharf because it’s not listed as residential and none of the businesses were listed as being affected, so you could get down to all the other roads except for Wharf Road. We were the only one. Everyone else had been able to come in, and

we wanted to get down there before people start to poke around.”

“We heard this thing on the radio on Wednesday morning that you could get access back in, but you had to get a pass……so I went to the Kalaru Racecourse and no-one there knew anything about it. And then just drove into town here and there was no road block.”

“There were pictures of people who were on the bus, and neighbours out on the street, and they couldn’t even get off the bus.”


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“The birds get fed daily. We were not allowed to come in to feed the birds. We were informed that we would be arrested as it was a

crime scene.”

“We said to the Police, ‘take us in, let us turn our alarms off, let us make sure our business/buildings are secure.’ All we wanted to do was secure our buildings if they were still there, and leave, because at that stage, people were saying people were robbing houses. The

Police said, ‘No, you can’t go in.’”

The authors of this Case Study met with Peter Volf, Chief Inspector of the Bega Valley, NSW Police in June, 2019, who advised —

“The Emergency Operations Centre still had a duty of care to those who were initially evacuated from Tathra, until it was made safe. There may have been a lack of understanding of the risk involved by persons affected, made more challenging because of some media reporting.”

An additional comment from Chief Inspector Volf —

“You do the greater good for the greater number.”

2.6 Media

Media staff from television, print and radio streamed into the area to report on the ‘devastating’ event to this small community with headlines such as ‘Bushfire in Tathra took hold in 90 minutes, say RFS and terrified residents.’ – (ABC News). The Tathra fires ran as headline and front-page news on the evening of Sunday 18 and Monday 19 March and throughout the following weeks. Many media staff were filming from the ground and air during the fire and evacuation.

Media have a job to do and help to get a public message out as to what has happened. They were certainly effective in spreading the message of the Tathra fire, initiating the response of widespread public goodwill and support.


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The challenge is they compete for the story and all have a deadline. Each seek to find a new angle and capture the human story. Exhausted and traumatised evacuees were therefore confronted with microphones and cameras, along with probing questions. “Did you lose your house? Are you happy with the fire fighting response/evacuation/town lockout?”, with the potential for any comment to be taken as a criticism.

The intensity of the negative imagery and messages from media directly after the event was extraordinary and distressing for the community and tourism industry. Media were allowed in by a group bus the following day (Monday 19) to capture photos and film stories. This might have been a useful way to manage them and allow them to report, but it was also very distressing to residents and businesses; many of whom found out if their house or business were burnt or damaged from the television news, as journalists and film crews stood in their driveway presenting a story. All this before the residents and business owners were allowed in to see the actual damage for themselves. This also resulted in the cancellation of thousands of dollars’ worth of accommodation bookings, threatening local jobs.

The reality in Tathra was that the beachside tourist precinct was largely unaffected, very clear to anyone from a visual perspective. Thankfully this fact was continually reinforced by the small number of spokespeople for the town and would have gone someway to counteracting the impact of the negative media messages. Recapturing those bookings cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and focused marketing campaigns over six months. Tathra business leaders should be commended for continually making themselves available to the media in such a difficult time.


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Wordcloud of terms used by media regarding the Tathra and District Fire.

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNT?

Community Leadership If you are a small town that does not have an elected representative i.e. a mayor,

identify a town spokesperson for the media (preferably before the event), develop a limited list of key messages and ensure that they are at all media briefings,

inspections, or politician visits and have a voice. While a regional mayor can be effective, they do not represent your town and have broader responsibilities and

pressing priorities during such a disaster.


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A positive report on the media from someone who evacuated to a private residence —

“We had the news on the whole time. I know a lot of people got upset about the news, being so constant and invasive, but for us, we

found it very helpful because it was the only way we could keep an eye on what was happening.”

Some interviewees strongly expressed their disappointment at the way the Tathra fire was portrayed to the wider community —

“I don’t really watch television, so I didn’t really see the hideous reports that were out there, but when friends stayed that night, I

saw about two minutes on TV and I just thought, how ghastly the portrayal of the whole event was, that small amount I saw, and

also for those people sitting at home watching their houses burning down when they don’t even know….. It’s immoral.”

“The only person that should have been allowed in here (Tathra) press-wise, was the person from the ABC. The Australian

Broadcasting Service. They should have been the only one allowed anywhere in Tathra. One person. One job. They should have been

able to give that information to all the other press agencies. We have got an Australian broadcaster, let’s use them to our

advantage.”

These comments from those who felt that the negative media reporting directly impacted on business —

“It would be nice to stop the media providing mis-information, but that’s probably not going to happen. How do you combat that, and

how quickly?”


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“Lack of tourism (impacted my business) by the fearmongering by media after the fires.”

Shortly after the fire, debate emerged about the effectiveness of the response to the fire, with calls for an enquiry. Some reporters were allegedly trying to stir up debate about the response by the various fire agencies, with others expressing concern that the reporters were targeting people at their most vulnerable.

“The media were asking about the (response of the) Rural Fire Service. I said, ‘You shouldn’t even be asking that question, you

should be asking how people are. I’m not going to discuss that. It’s political, and no-one in this town is in in a political frame of

mind.’”

Months later, journalists and film crews were still visiting Tathra with mixed reactions from some businesses-

“The publicity. I understand why it’s been done, but we are constantly barraged by having film crews and journalists and they

are all coming wanting to know the story. There’s only so many times you can tell it. I shouldn’t really whinge about that. It’s all

good publicity for the area, but it’s a challenge.”

It must be noted that many of the comments above, in particular the negative comments, were directed at national media companies.

Having a strong local media network was valued. It was considered that the local media including Bega District News, ABC South East Radio, 2EC/Power FM and About Regional (a new form of local news media for regional Australia) reported on the fire event in a professional, accurate and caring manner. Special recognition should be given to Ian Campbell from About Regional who volunteered many hours to chair community briefings and meetings from the Evacuation Centre directly after the fire, to all the Community Recovery meetings over the following 18 months.


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CHAPTER 3: THE PROJECT Following the Tathra & District Fire on 18 March, 2018, the Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Bega Valley Shire Council and Sapphire Coast Tourism4, applied for a Grant through the New South Wales Government Office of Emergency Management’s Community Resilience Innovation Program. The project aimed to build the resilience and preparedness of Tathra and Sapphire Coast businesses for disasters, with a specific focus on tourism.

Dr David Beirman from the Tourism Management Discipline Group at the University of Technology in Sydney (UTS) conducted some interviews and provided guidance on interview questions and evaluation of the project.

The Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project was implemented from October 2018 to October 2019 and explored —

• How Tathra and the Sapphire Coast could learn from the March 2018 bushfire and be stronger for it?

• How is disaster preparedness and recovery different for tourism communities where the natural environment is the marketing brand and the majority of people being evacuated could be customers?

This Project recognised that what happened to Tathra, could happen to any number of coastal communities in New South Wales, or indeed Australia.

4 Sapphire Coast Tourism (SCT) was wound up on 30th June, 2018 with a new entity, Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing, being awarded a four-year contract to provide tourism marketing services for the Bega Valley, commencing on 1st July, 2018. Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing is managed by Mr Anthony Osborne. The now obsolete SCT was a partner in the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project Deed of Agreement. Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing have taken over as a key partner in the project.


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3.1 Methodology

The research was conducted predominately with businesses based in Tathra and Kalaru, in the Sapphire Coast area of New South Wales.

Twenty-one businesses were involved in interviews for this Report in November-December 2018 with a view to understanding —

• Business preparedness for disasters, including whether businesses had an emergency evacuation plan (and enacted it on the day); if businesses conducted regular emergency drills and had robust business continuity plans in place;

• The financial impact of the Tathra & District fire on businesses, including the estimated losses, insurance coverage, and whether businesses were adequately prepared for a disaster event;

• What happened on the day of the Tathra & District fire; the key challenges going forward, unexpected opportunities that may have arisen as a result of the fire, and key learnings for the business that they could share with other businesses/communities.

Nineteen5 follow up interviews with the same businesses were also conducted in May 2019 to —

• ascertain the impact the fire had on the businesses’ ongoing recovery • document the percentage of increase / decrease from previous season’s returns • identify if businesses had any ongoing issues with insurance • ascertain if businesses had initiated any staff training or changed their

emergency procedures • investigate the immediate financial future of the business.

Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed.

5 Two of the original twenty-one businesses were not re-interviewed. One of those was still closed at the time of preparing this report; and another business had a new manager in place who chose not to be interviewed as part of the Project.


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Dr David Beirman notes —

“Tathra’s tourism stakeholders adopted an immediate response to the bushfire which focussed on solidarity tourism. In effect, this became the chief uniting market force for the community. Tathra sought to communicate the message that despite the hardships it had endured, the community welcomed tourists. There was strong stakeholder cohesion supporting the concept that the community and its many tourism orientated businesses sought the return of tourism in association with the sustainable rehabilitation of the town, the surrounding environment and damaged tourism businesses.”

In addition to businesses being interviewed, a range of other individuals and organisations were involved in putting together information for this report.

3.2 Outcomes from the Project

Beyond this Case Study the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project also delivered —

• a Community Led Recovery Workshop with leaders from other communities impacted by disaster (Strathewen, Blue Mountains and Lismore) sharing their experiences of recovery with the community, Chamber of Commerce and Council staff.

• an updated Bega Valley Shire Council Emergency Management Plan incorporating tourism figures and data for the first time.

• an "Emergency Management Fact Sheet for Tourism Operators in the Bega Valley" in partnership with Council, emergency management services and tourism operators.

• a Sapphire Coast Tourism Crisis Information Hub providing digital resources for local industry to access relevant information on business preparedness, resilience, crisis planning and response/recovery to disaster events.

• a Get Ready Sapphire Coast Business Forum where businesses across the region could access a range of information sessions and resources on business preparedness and recovering from disaster.


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CHAPTER 4: THE INITIAL RESPONSE – FIRST TWO WEEKS Nothing can prepare you for the fog and haze of the days and initial few weeks directly following a disaster. It is an emotional roller coaster. It puts new demands on individuals, businesses, organisations and the community while still trying to live, i.e., run a business or community organisation, employ people, go to work, and care for family/community. All while potentially trying to find a new place to live, attend meetings, support each other and the community in new ways, and quickly learn about things you never thought you would need to know, or only existed in the fine print.

On top of that you have dignitaries and the media discovering your town, many for the first time, offering moments of support or profile, that are a distinct opportunity and require focused attention.

“I did an interview (with the media) in my slippers, and I thought I’d just go home and go back to bed, I hadn’t had much sleep – I’ll

open (the business) later, tomorrow or the day after. But when I got back to the shop, it just stunk and I thought, ‘I’ve got to start

cleaning, I can’t not’. I opened the door, because I had to air the place out, and a customer walked in, so I was open. I served all day

in my slippers and my tracksuit. I hadn’t even had a shower.”

Beyond all that, at least for Tathra, was the overwhelming flood of donations and support from individuals and communities across Australia. Nothing prepared the town for that. Donations of money and goods flooded in, which was humbling, greatly appreciated and challenging all at once.


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4.1 Government and Council Response

On Monday the 19 March Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly, Premier of NSW, Gladys Berejiklian, NSW Member for Bega, Andrew Constance and Mayor of Bega Valley Shire Council, Kristy McBain visited the Bega Evacuation Centre, Bega Fire Control Centre and Tathra.

The State and Commonwealth jointly announced a Natural Disaster Declaration on 19 March 2018 which made available disaster relief assistance for the people of Tathra and surrounds, affected by the bushfire. This included access to free independent and confidential business advice to small businesses.

Euan Ferguson, an experienced emergency services and recovery coordinator, was appointed Recovery Coordinator, giving him responsibilities across agencies and reporting to the government the needs of the recovery effort. Euan arrived in the Bega Valley that Monday afternoon.

Mayor Kristy McBain announced the establishment of a Mayoral Appeal Fund for residents impacted by the Tathra and District Fire.

On Tuesday 20 March, Federal Labor Leader, Bill Shorten visited Tathra with Federal Member for Eden-Monaro, Mike Kelly.

On 26 March, Premier Gladys Berejiklian, together with Member for Bega, Andrew Constance visited Tathra, and announced funding support up to $10 million to assist with the clean-up operation and remove asbestos-contaminated material. The Premier also announced a Tathra and coastal region support package worth $100,000, designed to assist the local tourism industry, along with $1.2 million for the long talked about coastal walk linking the 150 year old Tathra Wharf with the headland.


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The following quotes from business interviewees reflect the first week after the fire —

“I guess your immediate thought is, ‘Right, how are we going to deal with this?’ Then you end up with all this support, which is

really good. Not only financial support, people just rang and asked how we were going, how we were coping.”

“I spent a lot of time on the phone because everyone had their little bit to say and wanted to know how you were going, and what the

overall outcome was.”

“It was mainly locals coming in (to the shop), to let off steam…….. lots of tears. So I gave out little goodie bags to some of our ladies, face-washers and candles and things like that which they’d lost.”

“People came in and we just chatted and cried and did all that stuff, it was a really worthwhile thing to do.”

“Thursday night is our raffle night here. It was packed. People came from everywhere. People wanted to get back together and have

a chat over a beer.”

“We needed to find out who’s here and who’s not, so we could organise the shop (Post Office). I had boxes and boxes of people’s

mail and parcels that we couldn’t deliver. It was just confusion. We had mail everywhere.”

“Stocktaking the loss, we had no idea we had that much in the fridges and freezers and storage. We filled up truck-loads of bins

which was incredible.”


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“We had over one hundred phone calls on the answering machine, people asking were we still here, how they could help. About six

hundred Facebook messages.”

“After the fire, we had to cope with an average of 250 calls a day from people who were affected by the fires and seeking alternative

housing and in some cases, just a sympathetic ear.”

4.2 The Recovery Team and Structure

The system for disaster recovery and support by the NSW State Government is well established.

The Premier of NSW announced the appointment of Euan Ferguson, an experienced disaster manager, as the Recovery Coordinator, supported by key staff within the NSW Government Office of Emergency Management in partnership with Bega Valley Shire Council.

The Tathra and District Fire Recovery Centre was established on 22 March 2018 at the Bega Valley Shire Council Civic Centre in Bega. Over 400 people registered for assistance in those first weeks.

The Centre consisted of a one-stop-shop for affected residents and businesses to access recovery assistance and support from a range of agencies and organisations. These included services from various insurance agencies and assessors, NSW Health and mental health services, EPA, Red Cross, SafeWork, NSW Small Business, Legal Aid, FACS Housing and Disaster Welfare Services for low income earners or the uninsured. (This Centre operated until the 16 April – when services were moved into the Council offices).

Residents whose homes had been destroyed or had smoke or any other sort of damage; or residents impacted by the evacuation of homes and businesses were all encouraged to register and explore support they may be eligible for.

The first Community meeting was held at Tathra Country Club on Wednesday 28 March facilitated by Ian Campbell from About Regional, introducing the Recovery Coordinator, Euan Ferguson, Recovery Team Members and Council representatives.


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It also outlined the initial priority actions that had to be taken. Euan Ferguson stated clearly and repeatedly in his first meetings with the community that this has to be a Community Led Recovery.

The Council appointed staff to the recovery effort across all portfolios of its business.

A Recovery Committee and Sub Committees were formed to address the issues of Health and Wellbeing, Infrastructure, Waste and Environment, and Business & Tourism.

“I am very impressed with how Council is dealing with the whole disaster”.

On 1 June, 2018, it was reported on 2EC East Coast Radio –

“The NSW Police and Emergency Services Minister, Troy Grant, says the Tathra recovery effort is the best he’s seen. He says he believes the Tathra recovery effort will be a model for the future.”

4.3 Community Response

Tathra individuals, community groups and businesses leapt into action as soon as the town was opened up and residents could return on Tuesday 20 and Wednesday 21 March.

The Tathra Surf Club became a focal point and drop in centre. Donations of food and clothing were assembled and spilled out into the carpark.

Disaster Welfare, Red Cross, Anglicare and Disaster Relief Chaplaincy Network were present at the Club and provided outreach (to 740 homes with 495 community contacts made), access to Disaster Relief Grants (DRG) for Household contents and structural repairs and personal support (Psychological First Aid).

Immediate assistance and Disaster Relief Grants were approved for essential household items totalling $81,900.

Volunteer groups kept emergency services, support workers and volunteers fed across the town. Helicopter water bombers and fire ground crews were still


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monitoring hotspots across the town for the following week. It was an invasion of fluro vests with environmental assessment and monitoring teams, utilities companies, council teams, insurers and emergency services staff all spread across town.

Groups such as Team Rubicon and Samaritans Purse arrived in town and assisted homeowners and businesses clean up.

The Tathra Community Reference Group was formed at a meeting of residents, primarily representatives of community organisations in Tathra, on the 23 March, just five days after the fire event. The group’s aim was to provide a coordinated community voice, support and response to the fire recovery.

4.4 Business Response

While only two businesses in Tathra had been destroyed, one of these was a caravan park which accommodated over 1,000 people, or a third of Tathra’s tourist accommodation. Many other businesses had suffered fire or smoke damage and accommodation providers were faced with a flood of cancellations ten days before the Easter holidays.

There was an immediate flurry of activity to re-establish and reopen businesses. Cleaning ashes from inside and outside buildings, reconnecting with and paying staff (checking if they still had a home), and restocking all cold room and frozen stock spoilt due to power outages.

4.4.1 Easter Campaign — ‘Tathra is open for business’

Ten days to Easter holidays and a flood of cancellations – what to do?

It was ten days out from one of the busiest periods of the year that sustains many businesses for the quieter winter period. Over $100,000 worth of accommodation cancellations had occurred within two days after the fire. Media reports and coverage of the fire had shown a town destroyed, with its main attraction, the natural environment, a charred landscape. While houses and a small number of businesses had been lost, the remainder of the town was operational.


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Immediately following the disaster, Bega Valley Shire Council committed $50,000 to supporting a sixty day ‘Open for business’ campaign, with a particular focus on rebuilding bookings for the immediate Easter and school holiday season. The campaign not only communicated that Tathra was open for business, but also asked visitors to book a holiday to support Tathra, reinforcing that most key tourism assets and experiences remained unaffected. Over that campaign period visittathra.com.au saw a tenfold increase in traffic.

The ‘Open for business’ campaign was complimented by a longer-term $100,000 campaign funded by the NSW Government, through Destination NSW, enabling the recovery campaign to continue in mainstream digital and publicity channels. Destination NSW also secured a live broadcast of the Today show weather report in the week following the fire. These campaigns were successful in generating new bookings in support of the community.


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Key messages included:

• The Tathra region is bouncing back from the bushfire • Tathra has reopened to the public and is maintaining a positive spirit in the

wake of the Tathra Bushfire • One of the best ways to support the Tathra community at this time is by

following through with plans to visit the destination and the wider Sapphire Coast region

• The Sapphire Coast is one of Australia’s most beautiful destinations, and Autumn is the perfect way to experience it.

• There is lots to explore in and around Tathra including pristine beaches, mountain bike trails, Tathra Historic Wharf, stunning hotel, fishing and national parks, which were completely untouched by the bushfires.

• The vast majority of Tathra’s accommodation providers, restaurants and shops are open for business.

• Every year, the Easter long weekend brings a major economic boost to the tourism industry and local Tathra businesses with interstate visitation from ACT and Victoria.

• The Sapphire Coast also extends to Bega, Merimbula, Eden and Bermagui which are just a short drive away from the centre of Tathra.

• Tathra, it’s always been a great place to explore, to exercise, to reconnect, to relax, and you know what? It still is! Come and see for yourself.

The following comments from businesses reflect on the effectiveness of that campaign —

“People came to support the town and businesses in the town – it all worked.”

“There were a lot of people in town for Easter, it was huge. We did have a fair few people come in just wanting to spend money on

anything to support us, which was great. A little weird, but great.”


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“There was a lot of people here at Easter, too many. Funny thing to say… we had too many people here at Easter. We could barely… we

were struggling to handle the numbers, on food.”

“The tourism campaign helped. I think it did. Just asking for people to come… like… help us!”

“They were coming in from all over, from Canberra, from Victoria, even local people were supporting Tathra for the day. Visiting all

the cafes and spending all their money in the town. Then it dropped massively.”

“The town was really supported over Easter. We got flogged. I thought we’d be down to buggery, I don’t know where they fit them,

but we were nearly on par with last Easter, which was good.”

“I thought it was going to be a quiet Easter, we were flat chat. People were coming in saying they just wanted to spend some

money in town.”

“Just something I’ve noticed, okay, our numbers are down tourists-wise, but people have come and spent money here. That’s how

they’ve donated. Many people have just come in and said, ‘Look, we heard about Tathra, that’s why we’re here. We didn’t donate

money.”


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Not all of the businesses however, were particularly pleased about the marketing campaign, feeling the pressure after a traumatic event, to bounce back and open for the overall benefit of the town —

“I felt particularly pressured at Easter to open my business. It was really hard for us. We don’t normally open on public holidays. I did open up for Easter and that was another financial blow. We had to do it for the town because they were promoting it, ‘Come to Tathra,

we’re open for business’. That was a big financial blow. We all have to make our own business decisions as to what is feasible for

the business.”

Directly after Easter and the School holiday period, the focus on the marketing campaign waivered, resulting in a downturn in trade —

“That (the Tourism Campaign) was short term. I think not enough has been done for the long term from the fire. It’s not just the first

six months that is going to impact this town.”

“I feel that things have potentially dropped off in terms of business, even though Tathra is growing every year in terms of visitation,

being a lot less places for people to stay, and lots of locals homeless that had to move to other towns or find accommodation elsewhere.”

“That was a really successful campaign. I suspect our problem might be in six months time, or maybe next year. Annual summer

holidays to the beach. Do we want to go somewhere that has just had something negative about it, or will we go to Byron Bay?”

“Directly after Easter, (business) was atrocious.”


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One business felt it was important to promote the other businesses in town herself, uploading pictures of food and local attractions to her Facebook and Instagram pages.

“People are making quite a drive to get here unless they’re locals, but it’s a tiny little town, they may not know what’s here, and if

each business promotes others, it really works.”

“Somebody recommended to put really positive things up (on Social Media), as if the town’s back to normal, so I’ve tried to focus on that

rather than go back through what happened.”

Many businesses thought that whilst the fire was a very traumatic event for the town overall, the publicity was positive for their individual business and the wider region —

“From a tourism perspective, what happened on those two days has probably been quite beneficial to the town. Since the fire, we’ve had

better than normal growth. The amount of exposure this place has received has been so beneficial to the town. It’s not just the town,

you bring people to the region and the whole area.”

“I don’t think the fire was a bad thing from a tourism perspective. It’s not easy to promote a place like this (Tathra). There are

thousands of places where you can go to the beach in Australia, lots in NSW alone. There have been some good community things that

have come out of it.”


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CHAPTER 5: THE RECOVERY The General Manager of the Bega Valley Shire Council, Leanne Barnes, spoke at a Recovery Meeting about how people were at very different stages of their recovery journey.

“The word ‘Recovery’ relates in legislation terms, to the social and public infrastructure, and not people’s recovery. Each person’s recovery is very much an individual journey, and all is being done by the Shire and other organisations to assist every person as much as possible on that journey.”

The Recovery for Tathra and surrounding areas had begun within hours after the fire with formal processes, funding and community action taking place. Given the scale of the impact it was evident to all that Tathra’s recovery would be a long one. It would not be ‘all okay’ next week, or month, or year. Amidst the urgency or immediacy of the initial response residents, businesses, the community, and government at all levels were preparing themselves for the longer recovery journey.

Some people expressed their frustrations and feelings about not wanting to be told ‘I am in recovery, or on a journey.’

“I am not recovering. I am still grieving for everything I lost. Let me grieve.”

Euan Ferguson and the Recovery Team, in partnership with Council and the Community coordinated the recovery process for the next three months.

The Recovery Centre operated at the Bega Valley Civic Centre up until May, when the service was transferred for a short period to the Recovery Information Point at the front office of Council’s Bega Offices, prior to transitioning to Tathra township. The main type of assistance people were seeking related to insurance and financial matters, debris clean-up, finding alternative accommodation, accessing re-building guidelines and processing Development Applications for re-builds, along with general access to donated goods and some of the necessities of daily living.

Through May 2018 a survey of impacted residents was conducted by Red Cross Volunteers and Council staff. This feedback informed the Bega Valley Shire Council’s Recovery Committee and Health and Wellbeing Subcommittee and assisted in future recovery planning. Key in that feedback was that it was best to


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have accessible services and relevant information, as well as psychosocial and practical assistance, all in one place.

The information gathered contributed to the development of a Tathra and District Recovery Support Service, funded by the Office of Emergency Management and managed by Bega Valley Shire Council. The Tathra and District Recovery Support Service was established at the Tathra Beach House Apartments from 18 June 2018 with one Co-ordinator and two part-time Recovery and Resilience Officers.

Euan Ferguson handed the Tathra and District Bushfire Recovery process over to Bega Valley Shire Council at the Tathra and District Recovery Community Meeting on 14 June 2018.

The various elements of the recovery included the following —

5.1 Communication

Communication is central to the support and recovery of the community post disaster. Informing and supporting traumatised residents, identifying and implementing community priorities, i.e. clean up and the ‘Tathra is open for business’ campaign, and engaging and directing assistance and goodwill.

The Recovery Centre and Bega Valley Shire Council together with other agencies, worked hard at communicating with those affected by the Tathra & District fire.

5.1.1 Community Meetings

The first meeting was held at the Tathra Country Club on Wednesday 28 March and introduced Euan Ferguson, as Recovery Coordinator, Leanne Barnes, General Manager Bega Council and key Council staff, with community comments by Anne Leadbeater from Kinglake in Victoria. Community meetings were then held fortnightly at the Tathra Primary School, chaired by Ian Campbell from About Regional. Updates were provided by Euan Ferguson, Bega Council and representatives of the Community Reference Group, Community organisations and support agencies.

Council staff attended the regular community meetings, to provide information directly to those affected, to answer questions and to receive valuable feedback and suggestions from the Tathra, Reedy Swamp and Vimy Ridge communities.


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A variety of guest speakers were also present at different meetings on topics such as building, insurance, legal aid etc. Refreshments were always provided and a counselling service was available. The Community Meetings were live-streamed and video recorded to allow those who were unable to attend to still obtain the information. The core information was also provided in hard-copy format, or included in newsletters for those community members who did not have access to computers.

Following the transition of Recovery Coordination from the State Government to Council in June 2018, the Community Meetings continued on a monthly basis from July 2018 to August 2019.

Council ensured that meetings were held regularly and were also flexible to the needs of the Community. On several occasions, the community were consulted through surveys or other means, as to the time, regularity and style of meetings.

“The town meetings were very good, particularly in the early stages. They’ve probably served their purpose now from my point of

view, but they were good.”

5.1.2 Newsletters & Online Communication

The Tathra and District Fire Recovery Committee produced a newsletter (initially weekly, then monthly) shared on the Bega Council and Office of Emergency Management websites, and printed in hard copy and distributed at Community Meetings, the Recovery Centre, Tathra township, along with fire post boxes at Tathra Post Office. Following the Recovery coordination transition to Council, The Community Reference Group supported a continued quarterly Community Newsletter through 2018 and 2019, listing town and region activities and initiatives, and distributed this throughout the town.

The regular Council Newsletter, had a section dedicated to both the Tathra and District & Yankees Gap fires, keeping those impacted abreast of various grants, upcoming events and opportunities to be provided with assistance.

The Tathra Post Office played a key role in the dissemination of information, particularly to those who had lost their homes during the disaster.


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The Tathra Recovery Centre was a key conduit for information sharing with a comprehensive database of impacted residents where information could easily be distributed through email, letters, flyers etc. Located in the heart of Tathra made the Centre accessible to most affected residents.

In regards to online and social media communication, Council’s website had a direct link to a bushfire information section with regular updates on available grants, Mayoral Appeal Fund distributions and recovery efforts.

Leanne Barnes, General Manager of the Bega Valley Shire Council indicated –

“Our regular newsletter and social media accounts help to promote events and activities in support of residents impacted by the Tathra and District Fire (as well as the Yankees Gap Fire) and one page of Council News is normally dedicated to information of relevance and interest to these communities.”

The business community of Tathra were quick to use social media to communicate that Tathra was ‘open for business’ following the fires; with thousands of comments and ‘likes’ on social media pages directly after the fires. Individual businesses communicated directly with customers and their suppliers, reaching out for assistance and in most cases, receiving an over-whelming result. Some comments in regards to the use of social media to promote tourism following disaster —

“My background is marketing. I didn’t realise the power that something like doing a live feed when you are emotional, tired and

suffering. If someone had of said to me, ‘Go talk to all your potential customers’ when you look like that, I would have thought,

‘No, let me wipe the bench, put a pot of flowers, put on my biggest smile’, that’s how I should present myself. But because it was so

real, people believed it.”


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“I’ve learnt that videos are far more powerful than photographs. I’ve learnt that you need to keep it real. I’ve learnt that people using

social media, it can be used for so many different ways, but most people use it because it’s now. It’s instant. They’re hearing it first. It

didn’t matter that we looked horrible, that we stumbled with our words. It didn’t matter that my lips wobbled and I cried a little bit,

it didn’t even matter if I got interrupted half way through. People were happy to stay viewing.”

Communication : Community Reference Group Newsletters providing information on the Tathra-Reedy Swamp, Vimy Ridge & District Fires.


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5.1.3 Community Led Recovery Workshops

In November 2018, as part of the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project, three guest speakers from other disaster-impacted communities came to Tathra to share the learnings of their experiences.

“Communities and individuals recover better together.” - Steve Pascoe speaking at the Community Led Recovery Workshop, Tathra.

Steve Pascoe attended from the small community of Strathewen, Victoria where 80 out of 100 homes were destroyed by the Black Saturday bushfires on the 7 February, 2009.

Jane Laverty presented on behalf of the NSW Business Chamber who worked alongside the Lismore and Murwillumbah Chambers of Commerce during the region’s worst ever weather event in March 2017 – the Northern Rivers Floods.

Michael Sperling lived through the Blue Mountains fires of 2013 and was heavily involved in the business and tourism recovery of the region as Executive Officer of the Blue Mountains Accommodation & Tourism Association.

Titled ‘A Stronger Future – Regional Communities Sharing Experience with Disaster’, the three community leaders spoke on —

• What really made a difference for their community to recover and grow post disaster?

• How did the disaster impact on jobs and businesses? • What new opportunities were created? • How did it change the way their community prepared for future disasters?

With a risk of re-traumatising a Tathra audience eight months after the fires, Red Cross, The Recovery Support Service and Coordinare were all in attendance to assist people if required.

“The Workshop highlighted the long road to recovery.”


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Some of the key points made by the three speakers were as follows —

Steve Pascoe

• Take your time (in regards to rebuilding) • Inclusiveness in the community is important following a disaster – everyone

is affected. • Don’t replace existing committees within the community by recovery groups –

the existing committees will continue long after recovery groups/centres • In his community, generally people who didn’t lose houses suffered more than

those who did (living in an environment that was black, with no lights, no noise, no animals)

• People recover at their own pace • Life-changing events changes lives – one grieves for what they thought their

life might be • Anger – “I lost my 50’s” (in reference to spending a decade of his life

rebuilding and putting his life back to ‘normal’) • Find time for leisure and forget the guilt associated with having ‘time out’ • Two years to feel comfortable, two years to rebuild, two years to get over the

last four years • You don’t ‘get over it’ or ‘move on’, but rather you build your life around it. • Fake it until you make it • Generosity often creates pressure.

“It’s not about getting back to normal. There’s a new normal, a new path”. — Steve Pascoe

Jane Laverty

• The importance of leadership in communities that are impacted by disaster • Building business confidence in place and people • Identify the challenges, address the challenges and turn them around • Businesses love positive stories of other businesses – success attracts success.


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Michael Sperling

• Business insurance is vital • Fires are normal – a normal traumatic event • Often Council’s first response is for home owners with businesses left behind • There is a lack of policy in some high visitor areas about managing tourists on

a ‘catastrophic’ fire rating day • Messaging of media is important post a fire event – media need to be

managed • Council’s role in the aftermath is to ask, ‘What do you need, and how can we

help?’, as well as to listen • There is a new ‘normal’ post disaster. The game has changed. Adjustment is

necessary. • Clubs and networks are important within disaster-impacted communities.

Steve Pascoe, Community Led Recovery Workshop, Tathra, 1st November, 2018. Photo courtesy Ian Campbell, About Regional.


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5.2 Health and Wellbeing

A priority for the Recovery Team was the health and wellbeing of residents and the community across the fire area. Counselling and community services was provided by the following agencies —

• Bega Valley Shire Council • Grand Pacific Health (South Coast) • Anglican Minister Bega/Tathra • Office of Emergency Management • Family & Community Services/Housing • Deakin Psychology • NSW Health – Public Health (SE Regional) • Rural Fire Service • Department of Education • St Vincent’s De Paul • Katungal Aboriginal Corporation Community Medical Services • Australian Red Cross • Salvation Army • Department of Human Services • Department of Premier & Cabinet – Regional Coordination • Disaster Recovery Chaplains Network • Rural Adversity Mental Health Program

Following the transition of the Recovery Centre from the state government to Council this continued to be supported in the longer term by the following key services:

5.2.1 Tathra & District Fire Recovery Support Service Centre

Following the initial three-month Recovery Coordination by the state government and the transition of this to Bega Council, the Tathra and District Fire Recovery Support Service Centre was opened in Tathra in June 2018 for the longer term support of Tathra residents and community. The Centre was staffed by 2.5 full time equivalent staff of Recovery and Resilience Officers who offered free, confidential and personalised case management to households and individuals impacted by the bushfire.


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Establishment of the centre was supported by $387,723 of funding secured under the NSW and Commonwealth Governments Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) with a commitment to providing services for the following 12 months.

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The Recovery Team (L-R): Caralyn Naylor, Anne Leydon, June Madden. Photo Courtesy Bega Valley Shire Council

Over the first twelve months the Service Centre supported residents with —

• Direct support, provision of relevant information, practical assistance and advocacy generally

• Guidance with accessing ongoing psychosocial and emotional support and practical assistance with debris clean-up, removal of rubbish, tree debris and cleaning of blocks where homes were destroyed or on nearby reserves


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• Access to various local service providers for goods and services, including assistance to those experiencing financial difficulties and those needing aged care services

• Assistance with insurance matters, replacement of birth certificates, driving licences, passports, title deeds and various important documents as well as assistance and referrals with respect to legal issues

• Providing information and assistance throughout various stages of the Mayoral Appeal funds application process, as well as representation at the Mayoral Appeal Fund Distribution Committee meetings

• Re-building and bushfire attack level information along with development application information

• Assistance in making grant applications through the Tathra and District Recovery and Resilience Grant Program

• Assistance in making grant applications through the Yankees Gap Bushfire Fencing Grant Program

The service was initially opened six days per week, from Monday to Saturday.

In September 2019, the Bega Valley Shire Council achieved ‘Highly Commended’ status in the NSW Resilient Australia Awards (Local Government Category) for their entry ‘Bega Valley Fire Community Recovery.’

“I did utilise the Community Recovery Centre. It was good to be able to go and talk with the agencies and so on.”

“The visit to the Recovery Centre was very helpful. It made a huge difference as to how I coped with the process.”

At the twelve-month anniversary of the bushfire, the Bega Valley Recovery Support Service indicated that 418 residents had registered from the Tathra and District region. Many of those people have been assisted on a casual basis with practical matters. Of these, 131 clients had registered for formal assistance in total. There has been intensive face to face assistance regarding ongoing support needs and linking in or advocacy regarding financial or building issues and future planning.


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At the time of writing, the Recovery Support Service has hosted five Casual Coffee sessions during 2018 and 2019 with residents who lost homes as well as those impacted by the bushfires. These sessions have been held in Tathra and Bemboka for all residents. The Recovery Support Service has hosted two Casual Coffee group events in 2018 for those affected by the bushfires but who did not lose their homes. Initial attendance was good but despite numbers declining towards the end of the year, there was relevant therapeutic discussion amongst attendees. Another hosted Casual Catch-up was conducted for all fire impacted Tathra and District residents on 3 May 2019.

“The best thing has been to be able to walk into your centre at any time. People have busy lives and are just trying to keep things

together. We just need a contact, like yourselves, to talk to, when we need it. I would have loved practical help and someone who rang

me to see if l needed anything. In fact, l still need that now.”

The Recovery Support Service has been active in attendance at various community events including the Tathra Firebirds activities, the Tathra Headland Green Shoots Planting days, the ‘Book Love for Tathra’ event, and various anniversary activities.

The Recovery Support Service also had a School Holiday program, in conjunction with Bega Valley Shire Library, in Tathra on October 5th 2018.

Although the Recovery Support Service was promoted as being available to anyone who felt they had been impacted by the Tathra and District fire event, the word ‘impacted’ obviously meant different things to different people, with comments such as —

“I think it’s important to define who is an actual victim of the fire. Clearly a property owner whose home was destroyed is. However, while many people may have been inconvenienced in some way by

the fire, there is no clear idea about how victims should be triaged.”


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“We didn’t feel like we could use the Recovery Support Service. That was that whole ‘Tathra thing’. We didn’t lose our house. We didn’t

think we were entitled to that. I could have done with some free psych/counselling sessions, but I felt like I couldn’t.”

“Irrespective of whether you have lost or not, it has impacted everyone deep down.”

Some business owners were unsure whether they were eligible to attend the Recovery Support Service —

“Obviously individuals who lost property did utilise the Recovery Support Service, but we found that a lot of business people thought

it didn’t really apply to them.”

In small communities, it is often a friend, a neighbour or people in a local business that bear the brunt of people’s problems. But when a whole community is affected by disaster, often friends and neighbours become separated through circumstance and the local business people struggle to rebuild, refocus and do not have the capacity to have one on one conversations with each and every customer. In reference to the assistance provided by the Tathra & District Recovery Support Service —

“A lot of people have had trouble talking to strangers about their issues, when they’re used to just going to the butchers and the

newsagent and the post office.”


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5.2.2 Red Cross

Red Cross Emergency Services appointed a part time recovery officer, Linda Mayo, to provide support for the community and individuals from July 2018 to July 2019. Linda worked on a range of initiatives, including —

• supporting a number of the organically formed community groups to secure funding through the Mayoral Appeal Grants and other funding opportunities

• development and implementation of a number of workshops and development programs including a ‘Support the Supporter’ Program, several community preparedness workshops, and an outreach program

• delivery of two ‘Pillowcase Presentations’ to local schools – a program that teaches children to prepare for emergencies, build coping skills and compile personal emergency kits

• providing psychological first aid at community events with Red Cross team members

• hosting an information stall at the NSW Rural Women’s Gathering held in Merimbula in October and at the Rural Fire Services Get Ready Open Day

• attending the Tathra & District Community Meetings and the Bega Valley Health and Welfare Committee

• assisting the Recovery Support Service as a panel participant during the assessment process through two rounds of the Bega Valley Recovery and Resilience Grant Program.

In August and September, the Yankees Gap fire erupted which burned for 44 days. Linda’s work then extended to include the Numbugga, Brogo and Bemboka communities.


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Child decorating their own pillowcase in ‘The Pillowcase Project’. Photo courtesy of Red Cross.

As part of the anniversary in March 2019 Linda collaborated with Coordinare, About Regional, Tathra Community Reference Group, Australia Post and the Tathra & District Support Service to develop a podcast (the first in a series of three); hosted by Ian Campbell (About Regional) and Dr David Younger, a leading psychologist in the area of community recovery post disaster events. The podcast contained information on how the community may be feeling around the anniversary, what might be happening, signs things mightn’t be okay, and what supports were available.

The second podcast featured Anne Leadbeater. Anne visited Tathra directly after the fire event, and spoke at a Community Recovery Meeting. Discussion centred on what the upcoming months and years might feel like for those impacted; and where support can be found. The aim for this second podcast was to provide information that the community can tap into when they need to, thereby reducing in some part the anxiety that may be felt as the formal recovery supports start to withdraw.


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The third podcast focusses on the effects of a bushfire event on children and will contain interviews with Nicola Palfrey from Emerging Minds and Lisa Gibbs from the Jack Brockhoff Child Health and Wellbeing Program, University of Melbourne. Past events have indicated that while families are busy getting back on track, the children and young people in the family seem to be going okay. It’s not until things fall back into a pattern of the new ‘normal’ that those around children notice they seem to be out of sorts. It’s difficult given the time passed to relate the new behaviours back to the event.

5.3 Clean Up / Environment / Rebuild

The initial clean up after a disaster can look overwhelming. The removal of rubble and waste from 65 houses and two businesses that were destroyed, along with damaged houses, infrastructure (i.e. lookouts, fences), trees, gardens and parks was a major task.

It was estimated that an initial 10,000 cubic metres of general waste (approx. 1000 truck loads); and 1500 cubic metres of tree waste were cleared from Tathra. Over 7,000 cubic metres of asbestos contaminated material from primarily older style homes also required carefully managed treatment, removal and disposal. The house site and asbestos material clearing process involved the NSW Government Public Works, Council, insurers and specialty contractors.

In the meantime, volunteer groups such as Samaritans Purse, Team Rubicon, community groups and individual residents helped neighbours and businesses clean burnt gardens, fences and surrounding landscapes. The Lions Club continued this work assisting individual properties for six months after the fire.

Dangerous tree assessment and removal work was in full swing across public and private lands and hay bales had been laid out to resist erosion. A Soil Conservation Plan had been prepared in conjunction with Local Land Services with a focus on main drainage lines to prevent ash and debris from the fire getting into wetlands and waterways. A water quality scientist was monitoring the quality of the Bega River.

The Bega Valley Shire Council arranged for free disposal for residents at nearby Wallagoot Tip for a period of up to three months after the fire; and green waste was free to dispose of at the nearby Evans Park, Kalaru. Evans Park became a site for


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all trees that were removed along with green waste to produce woods chips and mulch to assist in the recovery of burnt areas.

5.3.1 General waste clean up

The Commonwealth and NSW Government, under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements, jointly funded operations to contain fire damaged asbestos and ensure public health and safety was protected. Funding also assisted with the clean-up for fire impacted residents, including: —

• the removal of asbestos contaminated material released as a result of the bush fire

• removal of all dangerous debris, including destroyed homes and trees; and • the removal of concrete slabs.

The work was undertaken in partnership with the NSW EPA, demolition contractors, insurers and Council, with all material removed to the Eden Waste Facility, which was closed to the general public for a period of two months to allow the work to be carried out swiftly and safely. The demolition phase lasted eight weeks starting on the 9 April 2018 and set a new benchmark in NSW for the time taken for disaster waste management.

The NSW Government contributed $2million to cover staff and the cost to landfill the waste. Significant work was done to recover and recycle as much waste as possible. For the clean waste (ie non-asbestos contaminated) brick and concrete were crushed into road-based or other types of gravels and scrap metal on-sold as part of a tendering process in an effort to reduce the amount of waste that went into the landfill.

The quantity of waste however still amounted to approximately three times what would have been received in the normal course of a year.


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5.3.2 Asbestos Contaminated Waste

Due to the older nature of many of the houses that had been destroyed asbestos was an immediate concern to Emergency Management and Recovery Teams. Assessors were on site in Tathra on Monday 19 March, the day after the fire, reviewing damaged houses and structures for asbestos.

Any fire-damaged asbestos material was treated with a PVA water-based sealant ensuring asbestos (or potential asbestos) particles that could become airborne, stayed put. Properties deemed as a high risk of containing asbestos material were also treated. This product has a (blue) dye in it, which gave a visual confirmation as to which properties had been sprayed and which had not. In addition, air monitoring was conducted 24 hours per day in four locations across Tathra from the 19 March and throughout the clean-up operation. All results reported no detectable asbestos.

In Tathra 30 of the 65 homes destroyed were identified as containing asbestos, primarily as fibro sheeting, resulting in 7142 cubic metres of asbestos contaminated material being removed during the clean-up operation. The clean-up of these sites, containment of waste and its transport to approved waste sites involved Council working closely with the NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) and approved asbestos waste management contractors.

A hygienist was hired to work onsite at the Eden tip, checking every load (even those where no asbestos was indicated), for possible asbestos, and air monitoring and vehicle hygiene procedures were also in place.


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5.3.3 Team Rubicon

Team Rubicon Australia unites the skills and experiences of Australian Defence Force veterans with first responders to rapidly deploy emergency response teams around the globe. A newly formed organisation in Australia, their second domestic operation called Operation Dawes, came to Tathra’s aid.

The Team of volunteers were hosted by the Tathra Surf Club and Tathra Bowling Club, from 22 March to 13 April 2018 to assist with the clean-up process.

The Chief Executive Officer of Team Rubicon, Mr Geoff Evans, was reported in the Merimbula News Weekly Special Feature three months after the fire, on 20 June 2018 —

“The Tathra community adopted our ‘greyshirts’ and treated us like family. They kept telling us everywhere we went, that we made a big impact on them. They didn’t seem to realise that their open spirit, generosity and stoicism in the face of great adversity had a big impact on us too.”

83 ‘greyshirts’ completed over 5300 volunteer hours with 123 requests for assistance logged.

Drawing – The Big Clean Up — Blake Thistleton,’When the fire met the sea’, Tathra Public School.


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They provided practical hands on help, such as assisting with repairs to damaged homes, removing waste and rubble, searching for treasured belongings thought lost, or cleaning up ash and debris.

“I don’t think many people had heard of Team Rubicon before. I certainly hadn’t. Clubs NSW rang me and said, ‘Would you be interested in having these guys?’ I said, ‘Who are they?’ It was really good having them here. I think they were a life saver for

everyone. A bit of a blessing.”

“It’s fitting I think, that we’re here over Easter. A time of rebirth, new beginnings. As the bush is even now, starting to come back, so is the town starting to heal, and breathe new life in to it. Even in such terrible times for a community, we can see strength and opportunity to make something better. Team Rubicon is helping this natural, healthy and long-lasting recovery happen.” – Greyshirt, 1/4/2018.

“I had a meeting with (Team Rubicon). I said ‘I don’t know whether you can help just yet, I think help is going to be needed in the

future.’ I was totally wrong there. We all know what they did over the next six months. That was (Clubs NSW) donation as to how

they could help, and I think it was better than any money.”


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Team Rubicon, ‘Greyshirts’, Tathra, March-April, 2018. Photo Courtesy Team Rubicon Australia.

“I dropped into the Tathra Bowling Club and made a request for someone to come and have a look at the easement area behind my

place. A representative from the Disaster Assessment crew attended. After he left, I looked at the bush from the easement level and

thought to myself, ‘This is impossible, it would take a person a year to sort that out. Then, the next day, up comes Team Rubicon

Australia, so quickly and bam! They removed so much debris’. — Tathra Resident

“I thought I could do it all myself, I didn’t need any help, I realised I couldn’t do it on my own. I needed help, your team has been so

helpful.” — Tathra Resident.


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5.3.4 Replanting / Environment

Rehabilitation of the natural environment was a key priority for Tathra. Crown land, parks, reserves and individual house sites and gardens all needed stabilising and making safe. Removal of dangerous trees, mulching, work on drainage lines and gully preventative works all required urgent attention.

NSW Public Works, Bega Valley Shire Council, Local Land Services, volunteer and community groups such as Landcare, Lions Club and Team Rubicon all played a role.

Samaritan’s Purse distributed Fire Recovery Kits – bags full of tools useful in the process of cleaning up and searching for items of personal value that survived the fires.

Green Shoots

A Green Shoots campaign was established by Bega Valley Shire Council, working in partnership with Tathra Landcare, South East Local Land Services and the Far South Coast Landcare Association.

The aim was to restore all fire affected natural areas, while offering the community a positive, practical and informal way to come together to connect through planting activities which are both healing for the land and for people.

The remediation program with the assistance of Local Land Services and a local Koori work crew installed sediment traps and flow control devices such as straw bales and logs in gullies. The aim was to decrease the risk of gully erosion and slow the movement of soil, sediment and ash from fire impacted lands into waterways or public and community areas.

In relation to environmental works, Bega Valley Shire Council’s Acting Environmental Services Coordinator, Michael Fiedler said —

“It is also recognised that fire can have significant impacts on water and habitat quality by increasing nutrient loads from ash and sediment, resulting in potential fish kills as well as disrupting ecosystem processes, especially in the Bega River and its wetlands. There is also a risk soil and sediment loss could severely affect Tathra’s stormwater infrastructure and roads as well as increase the flood risk. The works being


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undertaken will help ensure these important assets are protected and assist their recovery in the future. Contractors were also employed to remove burnt trees and bush and mulch popular areas, such as the headland and walking trails.”

A Community Planting Day was hosted by Council, Tathra Lions Club and Tathra Landcare at Tathra Headland on the 20 October 2018 to provide an opportunity for locals and tourists to get involved in Tathra’s recovery. Over 100 volunteers planted 1500 native seedlings and enjoyed a BBQ on the headland. A dune planting, two headland plantings and a rainforest restoration activity, together with a headland weeding event has seen hundreds of people involved in the restoration of Tathra. As well as plantings, simple erosion and sediment controls are proving highly effective. Hydromulch containing native and exotic seeds, was sprayed onto fire-affected ground with jute fabric and sediment control mesh used to prevent further erosion. The work is ongoing, with regular plantings filling in the gaps to support important habitats for many native birds and animals.

The standout success of Green Shoots lies in providing the community positive, practical and informal activities to connect after the bushfire through planting activities, which are both healing for the land, its flora and fauna, and its people.


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5.3.5 Rebuild Forum – The Pathway Home

On 12 May 2018, Council organised The Pathway Home, an expo-style event designed to be a one-stop location for people to come and find out what they needed to know about rebuilding and repairing their houses after the Fire.

The event ran from 3.00pm to 6.00pm on a Saturday afternoon and included a sausage sizzle and refreshments.

Building industry professionals, representatives from Council, RFS, Fair Trading and Safe Work were all in attendance.

Martha Dotter from the NSW Rural Fire Service talked about Bushfire Attack Levels (BALs) and Colin Wood from the University

of Technology, Sydney was on hand to offer his knowledge on building in bushfire prone areas.

Approximately 300 people attended the event which successfully addressed a direct need of the community.

By August 2019, six homes had been rebuilt and were being lived in and a further eight homes were currently in the rebuilding phase.

5.4 Donations

Tathra was humbled and overwhelmed by support from all over Australia in those first few weeks (and for months afterwards).

Food, clothes and household equipment flooded into town by post, truck, cars and community support agencies. Receipt, storage and distribution of these donations was a challenge for a small town. It was strange to see the local Surf Club


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overflowing with pallets of watermelon and fruit; tables of breakfast cereal and toiletries; surrounded by racks of clothes and underwear. The Merimbula News Weekly, June 20 2018 reported one of the more unusual items donated was 1000 packets of Crostoli King Italian biscuits. Literally tonnes of goods were donated, initially much of which was sent to the Bega Evacuation Centre.

In an effort to release the Surf Club back to its usual role, all donations were moved to the Tathra Town Hall, managed by a roster of Lions Club volunteers.

To focus the outpouring of support and receive cash donations the Mayoral Fund was announced by the Mayor of Bega Valley Shire Council, Kristy McBain on the day after the fire, 19 March and started receiving donations on the 20 March.

A Community Fund was also established by the Community Reference Group on the 28 March and received donations from clubs and individuals to compliment the Mayoral Fund and support the longer term recovery of the community. The Community Reference Group encouraged all initial donations to go to the Mayoral Fund.

The Bega Valley Shire Council reported:

“The community support of donated items has been overwhelming and extremely generous to date. Charity and volunteer organisations have now reached capacity for item donations. Therefore, the Mayoral Appeal Fund is the preferred method to assist the Tathra and District community.”

Steve Pascoe who was instrumental in leading the community-led recovery of Strathewen following the Black Saturday fires in Victoria, spoke at the Tathra Community Led Recovery meeting of ‘The pressure of generosity.’ Comments from local businesses in regards to donations follow —

“Chaos. Donations, they started on the Monday and they just kept coming. They just sent stuff. The phone calls, people from all over

Australia ringing and Facebook messages. ‘We’ve raised this….. and we’re sending it.’ They sent it all, Care of Post Office, Tathra.”


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“The donations – that really hurt our town. People were given everything, even if they didn’t need it. So they weren’t spending any

money. Even though it was overwhelmingly wonderful, I think it was quite harmful for businesses. Initially the food bank was great,

but it didn’t need to go on for as long as it did. It needed to stop and let those businesses recover. If we were a third world country,

I’d understand, but we’re not. We are quite an affluent town.”

“People were delivering stuff (donated goods). I had a day off and a trailer load of stuff turned up. ‘What am I going to do with that?’

You can’t really say ‘No thanks.’ I mean, I suppose you can, but at the time it was ‘Oh, that’s very kind of you.”

“Our town was inundated with donations. The one I felt sorry for were our supermarkets, because these donations came for a month?

Six weeks? We had a perfectly good supermarket up here with rotting food.”

All the kid’s stuff that was donated, we didn’t actually have that many kids that lost anything. It was only a very small group.”

“The poor blokes who came and did the toy truck in front of the newsagency. There were people from everywhere came and got those

toys, and they didn’t even live here.”

“We had entertainers offering to do a show for nothing. It was actually a matter of trying to fit them all in. We had to juggle all

these offers of help.”

“My suppliers did a big concert and got everyone to donate, and they sent all the donations to Tathra… it was amazing.”


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“(Service) Clubs get recognition of their support to community. It aligns with the fact that we’re not all competing for a dollar, we’ve

got common goals, common aims and common values. It (the support) shouldn’t have been surprising, but the enormity of it

was.”

The Community Reference Group managed much of the donated goods and produce, including storage and distribution.

Donated items tapered off over six weeks, some goods were given to the Hospital Auxiliary to auction. Much of the remaining goods went to the Bateman’s Bay Salvation Army for selling; the funds being then returned to the Tathra Community Reference Group.


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5.4.1 The Mayoral Appeal

Mayor of the Bega Valley Shire Council, Kristy McBain spoke of her experience in setting up the Mayoral Appeal following the Tathra & District Fire —

“I was in the Evacuation Centre in Bega by 5am the morning after the fire and it became clear to me that the recovery period for our community was going to be long. It was going to be emotional, and we needed assistance to ensure that our community felt like they weren’t alone in the situation they were facing, whether that was an issue of property damage, destroyed property or the psychological effects of this natural disaster. I asked our General Manager and Director of Business & Finance whether we could establish an appeal fund on that day, I didn’t know exactly how it would work but I wanted people to channel donations to one central point after I’d been made aware of ‘Go Fund Me6’ pages popping up and people not knowing who to support.

The Mayoral Appeal Fund enabled receipt of donations from members of the public, with the aim to provide funding towards projects that contribute to the recovery and rebuilding efforts of fire affected residents. The funds raised were distributed to those who were most severely impacted by the disaster, specifically owner/occupiers and tenants whose homes were destroyed or declared permanently uninhabitable.

6 A number of ‘Go Fund Me’ pages arose immediately after the fire, highlighting the need for the Mayoral Appeal. Fake charities try to take advantage of generosity and compassion for others in need.

The ACCC (Australian Competition & Consumer Commission) indicate on their website –

“Scammers impersonate genuine charities and ask for donations or contact you claiming to collect money after natural disasters or major events.”

The Tathra & District Recovery Meeting provided a timely reminder to people (unfortunately) about such scams with resources such as ‘Knowing your consumer rights’ provided to attendees.


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“As funds were being donated, we moved to establish a Mayoral Appeal Committee to ensure there would be community members involved in the distribution of funds – it was imperative that people understood that this was not an arm of Council. The seven-member committee was established with its own logo to clearly distinguish it from the Council brands. We sought advice from the Office of Emergency Management, Red Cross and the Recovery Support Service during various stages of the Appeal to assist with setting up guidelines for the Committee, distribution of the fund and administration of the fund.”

Funds received —

• were allocated by Council directly to those residents adversely affected by the bushfires, via specific grant or program

• contributed to a community group providing a support service or disaster recovery activity, or

• were donated to registered Tathra-based charities who would manage the distribution of donated monies to victims of the bushfires on behalf of Council.

In 2019, the Mayoral Appeal Fund reached $1.5 million.

The ‘Band Together’ concert in May 2018 raised $160,000 for the Mayoral Appeal, with all performers donating their time and Rex Airlines flying in all interstate performers for free.

The Bega Valley Shire Council reported —

“Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of locals and from across the country as well as businesses big and small, service clubs, sporting groups, other Councils, schools and individuals from all over Australia, the Mayoral Appeal Fund reached the $1 million mark in early May 2018.”


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In total, over $1.5 million has been raised and funds have been distributed through five stages, as follows —

• Stage 1 (May/June 2018): owner/occupiers and tenants whose homes were destroyed or declared permanently uninhabitable.

• Stage 2 (July 2018): people whose homes were lost or significantly damaged, including second residences such as rental properties and holiday homes.

• Stage 3 (November 2018): owner/occupiers and tenants whose homes were destroyed or declared permanently uninhabitable.

• Stage 4 (November 2018): people suffering severe hardship. • Stage 5 (March 2019): owner/occupiers and tenants whose homes were

destroyed or declared permanently uninhabitable.

A residual balance is being held for those residents who may contact the committee in the future

Business owners spoke of the Mayoral Appeal Fund as customers came in wanting to donate money to Tathra residents impacted by the fire event —

“I refunded some bookings, others, if it was under $100, they said, ‘You keep it. I told them I would donate it to the Mayoral Appeal

Fund in their name, and that’s what I did. That tallied up to about a thousand dollars that went into the Mayoral Appeal Fund,

because I didn’t want to profit from it.”

“People wanted to give us money. I was not particularly comfortable with the Mayoral Appeal… and I’m always worried

about post disaster. It’s all very arbitrary. People said, ‘Can we give you money? Do you have any customers here that were affected by

the fire?’ Well we have lots of regulars who were affected by the fire. I don’t want the responsibility of you leaving money.”


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“The Appeal, under ATO regulation was to exist for two years, and now 18 months on from the disaster we will be looking to make the final distribution and wrap up the fund. The Appeal Committee has always had the position of trying to get money out to our community members quickly, as their priority. I thank them for their work and assistance in the administration of the fund.

Although the administration of an Appeal is complex and time consuming, I believed it was the best thing to do at the time and I will be forever grateful to all the people, companies, Councils, service and sporting clubs, schools and other not for profit groups that donated money to assist our community and my thanks to all the people that gave their time willingly to assist in the administration of the Appeal.” — Kristy McBain, Mayor.

Appreciation from recipients of funds from the Mayoral Appeal Fund —

“I wish to express my heartfelt thanks for helping me to access the Mayoral Appeal Fund and other support programs provided to the

Tathra Fire victims. The fund (received with gratitude) will go a long way to help me set up house again in the near future. This, of

course, could not have happened without the very kind and overwhelming generosity of the Bega Valley community. Its beyond

anything I expected. My sincere thanks to you both and the teams working to support the victims. Bless you all!”

“Thank you so much for your help. It is very much appreciated.”


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5.4.2 Band Together

Organiser of the Band Together event held on 26 May, 2018, Darren Jones said –

“I had recently retired from the NSW Police Force, after twenty-five years. I was front line in the 2001 bushfires that affected the Blue Mountains, and again locally a few years ago with the bushfire that swept through Millingandi. I’ve seen the devastation and the affects it has on families and communities. Tathra was next level again, as far as destruction goes. How could you NOT want to help?”

Darren reached out to some contacts he had from years past working for INXS, and the idea just took off. He commented that the idea was the easy part, the realisation that there was only seven weeks to organise it, was very intense.

Asked about the response from local and external musicians wanting to help Tathra, Darren said –

“The response was overwhelming. Absolutely unbelievable. It got to a point where we had to have a cut-off point and we felt terrible that we couldn’t get everyone on to the bill. As it was, we packed in 29 bands over three stages. We could have had another 10 bands on the line up! Daniel Champagne and 1927 got on board really quickly and I was working from that initial point, until I had a phone call whilst on holiday in Bermagui from the Event Manager, who told me the Hoodoo Gurus wanted to be involved. Musicians are normal people with empathy. The Gurus really felt for the Tathra community and were determined to be involved.”


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A small group of individuals, namely Jess Ryan, Peter Whiter, Chris Nicholls, Peter Dunnage, Ken Vatcher, Paul Leeder and Frankie J Holden pulled the event together, coordinating bands, equipment, crew, stage managers, sound and lighting, logistics, security, parking, food vendors, ticket sales, marketing, competitions, accommodation, sponsorship. A band of about 40 volunteers also assisted on the day. None of the main organising committee even saw any of the artists perform apart from the Hoodoo Gurus, such as to ensure the success of the event.

Band Together resulted in the single biggest contributor to the Bega Valley Mayoral Appeal, donating $160,000. Over 4000 people attended the event, braving the cold to come together as a community. The event sold out the week prior.

“We could have sold another thousand tickets, but literally ran out of room! That’s what the Sapphire Coast can do. Out of tragedy

comes strength. Out of tragedy comes unity.”

Band Together. Photo Credit David Rogers.


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David Faulkner, Lead Singer of the Hoodoo Gurus said via their Facebook account after the event, that it was the best festival and charity concert they had ever been involved in. And with forty years on the road, they’ve done a few.

“A few months ago we played a benefit for the victims of the bushfires that devastated the south coast of NSW last summer. That event was organised by the BAND TOGETHER team and they did a fantastic job. Not only did they raise an enormous amount of money, they also put on a fantastic event that gave a huge lift to the local community who had been through so much. – Dave Faulkner, Facebook, 29/09/2018.

LINKS: https://soundcloud.com/doctormcdougall/dave-faulkner-on-abc-illawarra?fbclid=IwAR3jRnl9Uw82faJ-shV0a4RXILc80HpuvobqapGgX07wqAIIWY7t9GA6xek

5.5 First month – Business perspective

The first month after the Tathra & District Fire incorporated one of the busiest periods for businesses, Easter and the Autumn School Holidays. Most business owners spoke of how the community wanted to get back together at every opportunity, and how each person wanted to share their story of the event, and its impact on them personally.

“The first month was a hectic period. We found ourselves behind, particularly administratively, having chats with everyone, making

sure everyone was alright.”

“They came here to talk about (the fire). People wanted to tell their story. People just wanted to get it out for sure. We didn’t do any

work! All we did was talk about the fire. And we are still talking about it.”

https://soundcloud.com/doctormcdougall/dave-faulkner-on-abc-illawarra?fbclid=IwAR3jRnl9Uw82faJ-shV0a4RXILc80HpuvobqapGgX07wqAIIWY7t9GA6xek




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Some businesses faced incredibly difficult times in that first month; in particular the Tathra Post Office; and also local Real Estate Agents. Not only did they have their clean-up of their businesses to deal with, there was also the challenge of redirecting mail and finding homes for people to live in following the destruction of so many properties.

“The greatest challenge for me, was exhaustion. The hardest part was every day, I’d get people coming in sorting out mail redirection.

They didn’t know where they were living. They didn’t know where they were staying, but things were coming by mail to them and they

had to get it. At one stage, we had over 100 people’s mail on hold.”

“We had people that had lost their homes that were permanent rentals, so trying to re-house them, when there were virtually no

rentals – it was a juggling act.”

“One needs to think outside the box in the case of a crisis.”

After three months

Businesses were doing it tough as the annual peak periods of Summer-Easter-School holidays had come to a close and the colder, winter months were settling in. Many businesses reported that they were doing more talking, than trading.

“I’m not someone who gives up easily, but I really wonder where I’d be at now if I hadn’t of had support. If you can remain optimistic

and have a bit of sleep and get up the next morning and smile, and be positive about things, then you can do a lot more.”

“I would say that I spent a third of my time in the first three months talking to tourists predominately, but also locals.”


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CHAPTER 6: REFLECTION & KEY LEARNINGS FOR BUSINESS

6.1 Business Preparedness for a natural disaster

6.1.1 Emergency Evacuation Plans

Almost half (47%) of the businesses interviewed indicated that they did not have an Emergency Evacuation Plan for their business premises. Of the 53% of businesses that indicated they did have an Emergency Evacuation Plan —

• Two interviewees indicated they would just grab ‘something’, lock up and get out

• One interviewee indicated they had got their Emergency Evacuation Plan off the internet and felt it was ‘rubbish’

• One interviewee indicated they did have an Emergency Evacuation Plan, but it had not been reviewed in a very long time.

“With my Emergency Evacuation Plan (for the business), you deal with what’s in front of you on the day, but the fact that you’ve put

some thought into it beforehand, helps.”

“I empty the safe, lock all the doors and get the hell out. The same as at home. I don’t have a big master plan on the fridge.”

61% of businesses did not formally enact an evacuation plan for their patrons or staff. Although two of those businesses were not opened on the Sunday of the fire event.

“As much as knowledge helps, and as much as we had our plan in place, everything ready to go, no one prepares you for an event of

that nature. That speed, 80 kilometre per hour winds, no one is ready for that.”


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“I didn’t enact our Emergency Evacuation Plan, it was forced upon us. We thought we were safe, I didn’t believe we needed to evacuate, but once Authorities said, ‘Go’, well yes, I suppose we did enact our

emergency plan, and that was to go.”

Several businesses reported a range of people’s reactions to the smoke and fire on 18 March 2018 —

“There were people that panicked, people that were blasé, and everyone in between”.

From businesses that were trying to clean up, pack up and evacuate staff and patrons —

“People were coming down to get coffee and cake, and we are just trying to do an emergency pack up and get out.”

In terms of complacency —

“People were just sitting on cars like, ‘Oh yeah, I think it’s coming this way’. I’m a surfer and I know winds, and you just knew… this

is bad. It’s there, we’re here, there’s no avoiding it.”

6.1.2 Business Evacuation Drills

In regards to businesses conducting purposeful evacuation drills, 76% of businesses interviewed had not carried out any drills for their staff and/or customers. One business indicated —

“What we practice is basically, we have a staff meeting and then we spontaneously say, ‘Right…..everyone has to get out of the building.’

So it’s just them practicing walking out of the building. It’s not, right, go around, check this, make sure everyone else is out, so we

probably will be more purposeful in our practice evacuations.”


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6.1.3 Business Continuity Planning

76% of the businesses interviewed did not have a Business Continuity Plan; although 23% of those, indicated that they had all their records stored externally in ‘The Cloud’, so felt confident that they could operate from anywhere if they were required to.

Some businesses didn’t have a formal business continuity plan, but were successful in making one up on the run following the fire —

“Did we have a plan? No. But did we make one up? Yes. Because our reservation system was based in ‘The Cloud’, we were able to

redirect our office phone, and log in to our reservation system and start communicating with our guests, which was very important, so

we knew where everybody was and that everybody was okay, and then just let them know when they could come back in.”

Other businesses were complacent about any prior planning for an emergency event —

“I’m probably guilty, I’ve just been involved here for so long.”

The majority of businesses indicated that they would like more assistance in developing either Emergency Evacuation Plans or Business Continuity Plans for their business.

Since the fire event, the Rural Fire Service have acknowledged the importance that businesses and Chambers of Commerce play in regards to preparing a town, evacuating people, and recovering from a disaster event, and are committed to meeting with local Chambers along the Far South Coast of NSW on a regular basis.

“The decision to stay or go is a big thing.”

“I guess you can never be as prepared as you’d like to be. We all get a bit worked up about getting prepared and what we should be

doing. I feel that whatever emergency comes, it is going to throw a curve ball anyway.”


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“Be prepared. Don’t think it won’t happen, because it will happen. Have an evacuation plan. Think about the impact of a loss. We walked away, we should have stayed, but we weren’t prepared

enough to stay. “

“Make sure all your fire fighting equipment is good to go and serviced regularly.”

“I recommend you get a good hose that will reach all around your property. Just six months before the fire, I installed a new

‘Hoselink’ hose and that was awesome. So, make sure you have a good hose that can reach the entire property, the right length and

quality.”

“At the end of the day, it’s all your personal stuff that you’ve had for years that you value and can’t replace. I think that’s high priority.

Be prepared in that way, have it where you can grab and go.”

“Be prepared with insurance and an evacuation plan, there’s not a lot you could do except ride the waves of it.”


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6.1.4 Key learnings on preparedness


Preparedness Experiences from Tathra —

“My house / business doesn’t back onto the bush” “I’m in the middle of the suburbs”

“The beach is only 100 metres away” “We are on a headland surrounded by sea”

“We thought we could always just go to the surf club” “I wasn’t home” “Summer’s over”

“Someone will warn us” “We will have time”

“I didn’t think I would need a bushfire or evacuation plan.”

• Prepare your property – permanently. Bushfires don’t just occur in summer or when you are home.

• Have checklists/shut down procedures as to what to do or take in case of evacuating. What should I take? When the power is off you do not always know what is turned on. When you evacuate you do not always know how long before you will be back.

• Know your insurance – what can I actually afford to rebuild? What does an insurance broker actually do?

• Have an Emergency Evacuation Plan for employees and customers that can be enacted. When did we last practice it? Do all staff know their roles?

• Have a Business Continuity Plan to enable your business to return to trade as soon as practical after a disaster. What if…? Could I still operate?

• Work with local emergency service providers to build preparedness, i.e., town emergency planning workshops, attendance at pre-season fire briefings held in communities.

• Monitor forecasts and conditions in advance – the weather (including temperature and wind) and fire conditions for Tathra were forecast.

“Be prepared, don’t think it won’t happen to you.”


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“Our plan is to make sure we know what our plan is, take the staff through it, then practice it. If we didn’t have a great plan, God

forbid that people died here because we didn’t have our plans up to date.”

“One of the things we were always going to do and never did, was have a fire plan. I think a lot of people were in the same boat – it’s

never going to happen to me.”

“Remember how much your computer is ‘God to your business’. Take God with you. He’s not something that you leave behind.

Leave your insurance details in an envelope, stick it to the bottom of your computer. The one thing for me is everything that people don’t

want to say. Don’t forget yourself… get the hell out.”

“Even a day’s camping in a tent in Australia is like Man versus Wild. Really, you expect there to be wild winds, big seas,

something… and well, maybe a bushfire. You need to be prepared for the ‘maybe’.”

6.2 Personal impact on business owners/operators

Lifeline Australia indicates:-

“Natural disasters like bushfires, floods, cyclones, drought and other traumatic ‘natural’ events are extremely challenging for the people directly affected. The stress caused following a natural disaster can lead to ‘burnout’ and physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. Some people will be able to manage the stress but for others it may be difficult to cope. Most people eventually heal and recover and go on to rebuild their lives.”


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Those in Tathra are no different to other communities who have been impacted by a disaster event. Fortunately, we have learnt from other previously impacted communities and in turn, through sharing the learnings from Tathra, we may be able to help other communities, particularly those who also rely on tourism as the town’s main economic driver, to recover from such events.

Tathra Reserve post fire. Photo courtesy Amanda Galvin Myers.

In his Podcast with About Regional, March 2019 leading up to the twelve-month anniversary of the fire, David Younger, Clinical & Consultant Psychologist spoke about the importance of taking the time to think back about the Tathra & District fire event and the impact it had on lives.

“If we leave our collection of stories in the cupboard and never take a look at them, all too often down the track, something else will happen and people then realise – far out I never made the space to look at what went on in my life back then.”

Many of the interviewees for this Report, spoke of the psychological impact18 March had on them.


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“When I was able to sit down and reflect on the experience, I did feel an element of personal trauma.”

“It’s hard to listen, it’s hard to hear.”

I’ve felt shithouse for a large part of the year. It’s been awful. No fun at all. I’ve got to put on a brave face and I’ll do whatever I can.

They (my family) just say, ‘get back when you can’.”

“It’s probably something – deep down – I never thought I’d needed any sort of counselling because I wasn’t really impacted, but I can

understand for the people who lost everything, but I think everyone – irrespective of whether you have lost or not – it has impacted

everyone deep down.”

“It’s easy to just give up when it feels like it’s too overwhelming. There are so many things that come with this situation like a fire or

other crisis. It’s not just trying to run a business and earn money, it’s where you live. Every day, I came in and out of this house,

everything around me was just ashes and dust, it was horrible. You do have to tap into a lot of different things to get you through.”


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Psychological impact on children —

“We had a meeting at the school which was great, they had psychologists there and were very informative. My little boy took

quite a few nights to get to sleep again…..just the trauma of it. My parents’ home was damaged, they haven’t been back in yet.”

I heard a story about a primary student who struggled to go to school – scared of going to Tathra because of fires. I didn’t think

about it impacting someone so young like that, that it would become something in their mind that creates fear. Probably because how close it (the fire) came to the school – that’s probably the trigger

point, because it was right up to the back there.”

“I was really distraught, because I still hadn’t found my son. We’d been apart for hours, and I didn’t know for one hundred percent that he was okay. Then someone said, ‘There’s a little boy inside

laying on a rug.’ When I went in there, I found my son. Someone had given him a blanket, a pillow, a little teddy, and an apple. He

was just laying looking up at the ceiling eating this apple, and cuddling this teddy. I went in and picked him up and he said,

‘Mum, are we going to die?’ I said, ‘No, we are not going to die, we are alright, we made it, you are so brave, you are the bravest boy I

know.”


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From someone who initially thought they had lost both their business and home in the Tathra & District Fires, later finding out that both had survived. Describing her emotions —

“You go from absolute disaster, to euphoria”

In his article for The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, November 2004, Clinical Psychologist Dr Rob Gordon commented in regards to Survivor’s Guilt —

“Community members who do not suffer loss are also emotionally affected through guilt. It is common for them to avoid those who suffered loss or damage.

Survivors of a bushfire were disappointed by friends who refused to see them because they found it too upsetting to see the damage; but the victims needed their friends’ support.

A woman whose house was not affected by a flood that inundated most other houses, wept openly at a community meeting for what others had lost, and said she avoided driving through the town because she became so upset. Those who lost everything comforted her.”

Many of those surviving the impact of the Tathra & District fires also experienced this guilt as evidenced by these quotes —

“I had a bit of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder just coming to terms with it all, and just hearing from all the people who lost their

places and feeling really bad for them. I was one of the lucky ones. I didn’t feel that good that I’d survived and they’d lost their place.

That was hard. I know pretty much everyone in town. It’s sad.”

“If I reflect on the week that we opened, there was a person who lived in Tathra, who said, ‘I don’t know what to do. Every house

around me has burnt down, I think I should set fire to mine.’ That’s the survivor guilt thing.”


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“We had survivor’s guilt that neither our house nor business burnt down, when it could have. We still have survivor’s guilt.”

“The biggest reflection from last night’s community recovery workshop was hearing Steve Pascoe talk about the survivors living

in that devastated area where you haven’t lost your house and you’re living with the guilt of surviving – that must have been so

tough, and obviously people in Tathra would have gone through the same thing. There are areas where people’s homes burnt down on

either side and their house survived.”

6.3 The impact on businesses

Many people would think that the Tathra & District fire did not really impact businesses in Kalaru and Tathra, as the majority of businesses re-opened within a week of the fire event and did not sustain physical damage to the premises.

Two businesses are still closed at the time of writing this Report. One business, a caravan park, can accommodate up to 1500 people in the peak season, and therefore, it being closed has had an impact on most of the other businesses within Tathra.

Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing put this figure into perspective —

“A maximum of 1500 people per night. That’s 1500 X 7 nights, X 6 weeks (at the peak). That equates to 63,000 visitor nights.”

6.3.1 Rapid survey immediately post fire

On 10 April, 2018, a summary of results of a survey on the impact of the fire on businesses in Tathra was conducted by the Small Business Commissioner for New South Wales.

This survey was distributed to 189 businesses with an ABN in Tathra, of which 28 responses were received.

• Nine businesses reported a significant impact from the disaster on their business, eleven moderate impact, six a little impact and one said ‘no impact’ and one couldn’t really say.


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• Businesses were asked to describe where they were experiencing major challenges. In ascending order, cashflow maintenance, attracting customers, general clean up, paying rent, paying staff, replacing equipment/stock, paying suppliers, quick settlement of insurance claims, access to staff, access to stock/suppliers, communication restoration, building repairs, counselling, utility restoration.

• 16 small businesses (0-19 employees) either reported premises and or stock/equipment as damaged/destroyed; (five only with damaged premises, seven only with damaged/destroyed stock/equipment, and four with both damaged/destroyed premises and damaged/destroyed stock/equipment.) Ten businesses reported no damage/destroyed premises or stock/equipment. The one 20-199 employee business reported only damaged equipment/stock.

• 14 reported no current estimate of repairs to building premises; five under $4,999, a further three at $50,000 to $39,999 and two at $250,000 to $999,999 and three didn’t know, and one did not answer.

• 18 reported the loss of income as 10% or less of their annual revenue; three said it was 20-30% and one said 40-50%.

• 14 reported they were fully insured for the building and 14 reported full insurance for equipment/and or stock and six reported they were fully insured for business continuity/interruption insurance

• 24 expect to continue trading at the current location, one expects to move business to a different location and two expect to close their business and the other doesn’t know.

6.3.2 In-depth assessment of businesses

The initial rapid survey immediately post fire as shown in 6.3.1 above, did not detail the full picture of the impact to those businesses in Tathra and surrounds. Many businesses were still discovering damage to their property or the economic impact, weeks after the rapid survey was completed. Damages such as those to underground and overhead infrastructure (watering systems, plumbing, aerials etc), ongoing loss of income, and lack of tourists to the area resulting in reduced cash flow are often not immediately known or understood.

As part of the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project; twenty-one (21) businesses were selected to further assess the full impact the Tathra & District Fire had on them, over a fifteen month period. In order to obtain a range of responses from tourism businesses, a three-tier system was used.


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Tier Description Tier 1 Businesses that are directly and predominately set up for providing a tourism service. May

employ staff and would expect to increase to capacity over peak holiday periods. Example: caravan park, accommodation providers.

Tier 2 Businesses that operate all year round in Tathra for the local community, but benefit from the influx of tourists, i.e., food and beverage; medical practice; post office; hair dresser.

Tier 3 Businesses that provide an auxiliary service to the community, but profit indirectly through being in a tourism-focused community, i.e., tradespeople undertaking maintenance on holiday rental accommodation.

“Yes, there was a loss (to the business). I had to put two guys off. It’s the quietest I’ve been for five years. Maybe ten years. I’ve just

been scratching.”

The businesses interviewed, reported their collective estimated initial loss was $4.8 million. This figure did not include loss of trade, free produce given away post the disaster; and other assets that are very difficult to value (i.e., endangered breed of birds). It also does not include loss of personal property, as some business owners were also impacted on a personal level with loss of home/holiday rental property.

80.9 percent of the businesses surveyed indicated they were adequately insured. The other 19.1 percent indicated they did not have adequate insurance to cover the event.

Businesses were interviewed again, 15 months post the disaster and were asked if they had a loss or profit in business since the fire, and to provide an estimated percentage. 63 percent of businesses indicated that they were down overall in trade since the fire event; with 37 percent indicating positive growth in their business since the fire.

In regards to staffing, 21 percent of the businesses reinterviewed in 2019 indicated that they had been required to increase staff numbers since the fire due to positive growth in the business; whilst 15.7 percent indicated they were required to reduce staff numbers since the fire event. One of those businesses reduced employees immediately after the fire, but has since reemployed them. 63 percent of businesses had no change to staffing numbers since the fire.

The following quotes obtained from interviewees who own and run businesses in Tathra and District depict the aftermath of the fires on their business financially —


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“No one came in except to talk about what had happened. So, it was about two weeks of no income.”

“We opened for a week for free for the ‘firies’ and locals to come down, but the majority of my first week back was people needing to

talk. It was very draining. People just needed to tell their story. Some people, it hadn’t even hit them….. it can take anything from

an hour to years and years before it even hits. It was just a very emotionally draining time for everyone. The trauma for some of the

people was really hard to deal with.”

“We were closed for a week. We could have opened earlier, but out of respect, we chose not to.”

“Even when we opened up (after the fire) and started serving food, I was always giving free tea and coffee away. You can’t stand there with people who have lost their house and charge them for a meal

or whatever.”

“The recovery is still in progress. We have lost the tourists. We have lost a lot of permanent holiday makers that come here.”

“We lost birds. About sixteen, for various reasons. Smoke inhalation, shock, impact injuries caused by low flying helicopters.

The flight path was straight over the top of us to the dam. Two were part of an endangered species breeding program.”

“We had the survivor’s guilt thing of local people not wanting to come out and be seen as having a good time. The culmination of

that has been really hard. People who had been given donated


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items not wanting to be seen going out and spending money. It’s been a very complex six months.”

“We have one caravan park down and I think that six air bnb or rental properties have gone, which is a big impact as well. People

still come and expect to see cinders. Let’s face it, who wants to go on holidays thinking about someone else’s loss? I don’t think it’s as

bad as what was portrayed. You get the post disaster tourism, which is dreadful.”

“Financially, it’s really tough. It’s the same when there are droughts inland, and there is no support for small business. In a

disaster, when other individuals are offered assistance when small businesses aren’t afforded the same concessions. I could have got an

interest- free loan, I could never pay that back. It really seems like it’s very difficult for small businesses.”

“I never thought at this point of my life…. being worse off than I was three years ago. It’s not how I saw things would go financially,

and so it does make you question it.”


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The Tathra & District fire event has had an impact on local jobs, many of which are seasonal. One business that was impacted by the fire, and has been unable to reopen at the time of writing this report, was therefore unable to employ the usual junior staff over the peak period.

“That’s the hard part for me this year. I usually take five youngsters from Tathra. Five young kids get their first job every

season with me. That’s the hard part.”

The impact of one large accommodation business being non-operational on other businesses —

“We took up nearly a third of Tathra’s accommodation. How much is it effecting this town (my caravan park) not being open this

summer? Every business person is going to hurt next year.”

“The locals keep us going in the winter, we make our coin in the summer.”

“It’s been a bit quieter because the caravan park is still out of action. Until that is rebuilt, we won’t be pushing out the figures we

were before that.”

On the 23 January, 2018, just six weeks prior to the Tathra and District fire event, a structural fire completely destroyed three businesses in Tathra.

One other business was also severely impacted by a separate natural disaster, the East Coast low of June 2016, which resulted in a six-month closure whilst repairs were undertaken.

Another two businesses were destroyed by fire in nearby Merimbula in May, 2019.

People often speak of complacency, and comments such as ‘I didn’t think it would happen to me, or happen here” were common whilst researching for this Report. However, clearly eight businesses destroyed or completely shut down for lengthy


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periods by four separate events in one Shire over a sixteen-month period, speaks volumes about potential impact to businesses.

“I probably didn’t fully assess the risk of a bushfire here, I didn’t even consider that. I thought about this place burning down from

an electrical fault or whatever, arson, but I’d never thought of bushfire. I don’t think many people think of their town being

impacted so drastically by something like that. It’s always quite shocking, we see it from time to time, but I don’t think anyone is

ever prepared for something on that scale.”


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6.3.3 On business recovery

“I think we just need to strap in and hold on until it all evens out.”

“We feel lucky, and a little bit guilty, that this has helped our business.”

“We’ve had the best winter we’ve had for years.”

“I found that the locals really supported us, so it wasn’t too bad. I think we are feeling the impact more now when we’ve had school

holidays that weren’t as busy, and I’m a bit nervous about the Christmas holidays with one caravan park down, because that’s a

thousand people over the six weeks.”

“(Business) has been good. It’s been building which is nice.”

“We’ve had support from all levels of Government. One benefit is that people do know where Tathra is now.”

“It’s stressful and draining on you personally when business isn’t succeeding how you planned out. It’s good just to be aware that

there could be long term affects. It’s very hard to be prepared for a disaster like that, but if you can get any bit of advice, I would have

welcomed it.”


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6.3.4 Key learnings on business recovery


Recovery

Businesses were re-interviewed at the fifteen-month mark to consider the long-term impact and determine if business in Tathra had changed any practices or procedures post the fire.

It was noted that businesses had –

• Reviewed or renewed their insurance policies in greater detail, with a new appreciation of insurance brokers, and what they can do for businesses

• Upgraded their electronic files to the Cloud or explored options for the storage of important documents

• Updated their Emergency Evacuation Plans or sought assistance in developing them

• Improved property maintenance and waste management arrangements for their business

• Changed the way they inducted their staff

• A renewed appreciation of the importance of having shut down procedures and lists of things to take in the event of an emergency

• Undertaken emergency management training of some description, either themselves or with their staff

• Used the opportunity to reassess their business model

• Changed the way they interact with staff

• Changed the way they have designed or implemented new infrastructure (i.e., having more than one exit in new accommodation infrastructure or making new infrastructure more accessible)

• An increased appreciation of their staff resulting in better manager/staff relationships.


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“My staff are greater, because I’m better at allowing them to be greater.”

“I’m really open to change now. I’ve seen how change can be good. So let’s change something every day.”

6.4. Insurance

The Media Release from the Insurance Council of Australia, dated 21 March, 2018 indicated that –

“Insurance losses from Sunday’s catastrophic Tathra bushfire stands at $36 million from 340 claims. The number of claims is expected to increase as residents return to affected areas.”

Initial estimates of the houses destroyed or damaged in Tathra suggested that around 10% were uninsured, but over 50% were potentially underinsured, primarily due to the changes in building codes and fire ratings for building zones.

For businesses surveyed for this research 81% indicated that they felt they were adequately insured.

The other 19% indicated they did not have adequate insurance to cover the event. At the 15 month interval after the Tathra and District fire, three of those businesses still had not finalised their insurance claims.

“I never understood it completely, because it’s all over the phone. I just had this feeling that it wasn’t right, and afterwards, it

definitely wasn’t right.”


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Comments on the importance of insurance for businesses —

“For me, if I lose the business, there’s no more business. I’ve lost everything I have invested all my life, all my money, everything is

there. If I don’t have something that I can effectively on-sell, recuperate or generate income from, then I’ve lost everything.”

“To prepare, get really good advice regarding insurance, which I didn’t have. I thought I was heading in the right direction, but it wasn’t adequate. That’s the way to give yourself every chance of

future success, because without it, you’re burnt, you’re gone, you’re finished.”

“In identifying the risks, bushfire was never one of the risks. We’ve had flooding, heaps of flooding before, water is our main risk here. I never thought fire would be the issue. It really didn’t factor on my

radar.”

These comments on the difficulty that some businesses face in obtaining affordable insurance —

“The current insurer wouldn’t re-insure us. Even though we made no claims as a result of the fire, the insurer wouldn’t renew. We are classed as ‘bushfire prone land’ here. They were not willing to take on that risk. They had a zero risk appetite. We eventually found an

insurer. There was a total of 15 brokers over six weeks and over 120 declines to get insurance.”


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“We are totally uninsured. We cannot get insurance for a reasonable price here.”

“Some people have not had great experiences with their insurance companies.”

In the following months, many businesses chose to reassess their insurance coverage —

“I have thought more about insurance, I’ve done a bit of work on that. But I still can’t afford to insure my business the way it needs

to be insured, if I were to lose everything. It’s just….. it’s a risk I have to take. I can’t afford it.”

“We just looked at our insurance, and looked at insurance terms such as ‘replacement value’ as opposed to ‘replacement’.”

“I actually upped our insurance. When we thought about what we could have lost, not even close.”

“We have changed our insurer. Had there been no fire, would we have done this? Probably not. Probably we would have been going

on the same old way, not really understanding my policy. Not really knowing who I would call if something happened, not

understanding what a broker does or their role.”

“I’ve upped our insurance policy. I was a little bit underinsured. It costs a lot more to rebuild than what I thought, when you’re

replacing stock and all that.”


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“When you are dealing with insurance, you are usually given an option of getting a cash settlement, and then they close off the claim. The alternative is the difficult track of purchasing and

getting quotes and receipts and keeping track of it, which is wearing and difficult. However, if I had of taken the easy route, we

probably would have lost a lot of money’s worth of insurance. We are still finding things that burnt. We’re pleased we didn’t do a

cash settlement.”

6.5 Recommendations for business


Recommendations for Business

• Reach out – don’t be afraid to ask for, or accept help from your professional field, similar businesses, government, the community. You will recover faster and be stronger for it.

• Clear and consistent message – ‘Tathra is open for business’. You want to help – come and have a holiday, spend money. Don’t be afraid of a raw immediate message through social media. Act promptly, be honest and keep your customers informed.

• Take time and reassess business plans and operations. Some damage was not found until twelve months later. Some insurance claims are still being resolved.

• Look forward – be positive and optimistic. Take every opportunity you can get. Engage staff.


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“Be on the front foot, rally your troops, get your business cleaned up and back operating. That’s what worked for us.”

“Communicate with your guests and have the ability to continue to communicate with them after the evacuation and then when you get

back in after the event.”

“Never, ever try and stand strong and be ‘Solo Man’ because there are so many people and organisations around that can offer you

help. Be accepting of the help.”

The following highlight a snapshop of the different learnings for different types of businesses that participated in the research –

BUSINESS TYPE COMMENT REAL ESTATE AGENTS Swings and roundabouts – loss of holiday rentals, higher demand for

longer term rental, opportunities with sales of blocks and houses. BUILDERS It’s a longer term journey, don’t change your current work schedule –

ensure the health of your business first. People take time to make rebuild decisions. Planning approvals and processes also take time.

BUILDING CONTRACTORS

Increase in business steady, insurance companies often bring their own tradies in from other areas, so local contractors do not always benefit from extra work.

ACCOMMODATION PROVIDERS

The event put the town on the map, increased numbers to the area, increased corporate clientele, provided an opportunity for accommodation providers to provide additional services/respond to different needs.

POST OFFICE A central hub, necessary, plays a vital role in the recovery process. CAFES/RESTAURANTS Challenging – smashed or nothing, seasonal peaks and troughs,

emotionally draining.


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6.6 Reflection on the Fire

6.6.1 Reflection from a community perspective

The initial reflection by the community was one of gratitude to emergencies services for the houses that were saved and the fact that no one was killed. As fire crews continued to put out hot spots from the ground and air over the following weeks, many messages of thanks were shared. From signs in streets (“Angels fly here”) to signs on trampolines (“Thanks Firies”), to personal meetings and messages for the RFS. The community continued to serve meals and drop gifts of thanks to the Tathra RFS station over the following weeks.

“I’ve got nothing but respect for all the fire personnel. The teams in the helicopters and trucks are legends. They saved the town. There

would have been a lot more houses burnt if they weren’t here.”

For those members of the community who had lost houses and so much more in their lifelong possessions there was grief and compassion. An emotional outpouring of sadness, but also support from a range of sources. Neighbours hugged in the streets, groups formed to network and support each other.

Amidst this for some members of the community there was also anger and frustration. Anger that the warning had not come earlier, that more fire fighting resources had not been called, the evacuation had not been called earlier and was chaotic, that they had been locked out of town. Some of this had not been helped by the media searching for angles of division – were you happy with the fire response? The evacuation? The lockdown? The official review of the fire by Mick Keelty and associated media coverage also fuelled discontent with ongoing arguments between fire services.

For a local community, Chief Inspector NSW Police Peter Volf advised —

“Emergency Services personnel are local community members too, many of whom are volunteers. They are faced with a job to do, while knowing that family, friends and property are at risk.”

The looming summer of 2018/19 also had people thinking about their fire preparedness once again. The first local fire preparedness sessions were rolled out


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across Bega Valley in September, 2018. There was an increase in the number of RFS volunteers and a pre-season ‘Get Ready for the Fire Season’ briefing held in Bermagui in November 2018 was a packed event. Previously, the RFS had struggled to attract attendance at these types of pre-season fire information/awareness gatherings.

6.6.2 Rural Fire Service (RFS)

The Rural Fire Service had over twenty other incidents to deal with in the Bega Valley on 18 March, 20187, not including the duplication of calls regarding the Tathra & District fire event. A number of the other incidents had similar potential to the Tathra fire, but were more accessible to ground crews before they developed further.

The conditions on the day were such that the clear priority was protection of life, both the broader community and fire fighters. Whilst the operations in and around Tathra took priority, there was also a need to ensure other areas weren’t left exposed or under resourced under such volatile conditions.

The RFS worked through the Local Emergency Management Committee structure to support coordinated relocations where required and possible to do so, safely.

On the morning of 18 March, 2018, the local Tathra RFS were initially deployed to a fire in Kerrisons Lane near Bega; which had the potential to develop into a major fire impacting on Tura Beach and surrounds. This fire was successfully put under control, and those crews were then re-deployed to Tathra.

Initially, people were coming into the Tathra fire shed seeking information, however, as phone lines were down, radios experienced heavy traffic, and resources scarce, information that could be provided to the general public at that point, was limited.

Following the fire front, which lasted between three and six hours, the Tathra RFS housed various groups who were blacking out8 over the coming days. The Building Rapid Assessment Team was also based at the Tathra RFS shed, which became a hub of activity with local media & politicians also ascending on the premises. The

7 Source: Bega Valley Fires Independent Review, June 2018.

8 Blacking Out: Extinguishing all flames/hot spots, burning trees/logs, ensuring no chance for reignition.


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local butcher, service clubs and others took food to the fire shed to assist those working on the event.

One of the biggest aspects for the local RFS members was not knowing the whereabouts of loved ones; as well as having property impacted themselves. There were also safety aspects with debris and power lines down over roads, making it difficult for crews to access some areas.

Adam Wiggins from the Tathra RFS said,

“The Rural Fire Service is strong. We have good comradery with our neighbouring brigades, we often train together and support each other. By providing good leadership on the day of the Tathra and District fire, and staying calm, this helped our team stay focussed on the task at hand.”

The Shoalhaven crews provided some much-needed respite for the Tathra RFS crews, many of whom had been working 12-14 hour days on the day of the fire and subsequently.

Martin Webster from the RFS stated:-

“The resilience shown by the Tathra community has been extraordinary. Much of this is due to the connected nature of the community prior to the fire event. Connected communities are resilient communities.”

The RFS are continuing to work with the Tathra Community (and other communities) through their ‘HotSpots’ Peri urban workshops with the aim to developing Community Protection Plans and to further promote resilience through empowerment. They are also meeting with local Chambers of Commerce periodically to update them on Neighbourhood Safer Places and provide information and forecasts for the upcoming fire season.


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On Saint Florians Day 9 2019, Bega Valley Brigades were awarded the Commissioner’s Certificate of Commendation (Unit) as recognition of service or outstanding actions in relation to fire service duties, administrative leadership, or exemplary performance of a specific project or task. The citation read:

‘All crew members demonstrated extraordinary levels of courage and support to the community.”

Bega Valley Brigades, Saint Florians Day 2019. Photo courtesy of the Rural Fire Service.

9 Saint Florians Day is named after the Patron Saint of Firefighters.


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6.6.3 NSW Police

Peter Volf, Chief Inspector of the Bega Valley, NSW Police advised —

“Members of the Police are locals too, with family members, friends, livestock, pets, and a community they were trying to protect. Their commitment is to protect life. A board at the Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) indicates the number of deaths and the number of people injured at any emergency. A key focus for us is working to ensure both those remain at zero”.

The Bega Valley Police cover a wide area from Bermagui in the north to the Victorian Border. On a quiet Sunday on the 18 March, 2018, the call came for assistance with the Tathra bushfire.

Six police cars and ten officers responded.

For a bushfire, the Rural Fire Service (RFS) call for the police and wider emergency services (i.e. SES, Ambulance) when they need assistance, which results in the establishment of an Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) with a Central Point of Command. For the Bega Valley, the EOC is in Bega.

The EOC for the Tathra and District Fire was established on the afternoon of Sunday 18 March and Peter Volf, Police Chief for the Bega Valley took the role of Local Emergency Management Controller.

Police have responsibility for road blocks, traffic diversion, evacuation, escort support into disaster areas, patrolling for security, ie to prevent looting. The RFS has control of the fire area and the police are called into action by the RFS in the fire affected areas to facilitate evacuations, set up road blocks etc.

The EOC make overall decisions on the management of the disaster event.

On the afternoon of the fire, the police were called in to initially evacuate the Thompsons area of Tathra, followed by the rest of the town (approximately 1000 people). This was taking place in a dangerous and rapidly changing fire front with embers raining down on the town, restricted visibility, unpredictable and wild winds, noise, and fire teams throughout the town and in the air trying to protect homes.


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Chief Inspector Volf advised:-

“Police have a commitment to protect life. Not just of the person they evacuate, but of any emergency services staff whose life might be put at risk if someone chooses not to evacuate.”

The essence of his statement is — it’s a tough call.

Yes, the police could within their powers arrest people who do not evacuate, but in many emergency evacuations they do not have the time or resources to do so. While individuals chose to stay at their own risk, the police leave them with heavy hearts knowing their key goal of protecting life is threatened by these choices, or even more of a concern that it could threaten the life of emergency services workers if the resident then changes their mind or has to be rescued.

The role of the Police in Tathra continued for four days as road blocks were maintained, groups escorted in and out of the disaster area, and as work was undertaken to make areas safe, eventually allowing the full repatriation of the towns’ residents.


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6.6.4 Independent Review of Bega Valley Fires, June 2018

The NSW Government announced an inquiry into the March 2018 Bush Fires that occurred in the Bega Valley Local Government Area led by former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty, AO APM. The following terms of reference applied to the Review –

a) Review and report on the adequacy of the Fire Services’ response to the Reedy Swamp fire in Bega that occurred on 18 March 2018 and subsequently impacted upon the township of Tathra;

b) Review the call taking and dispatch arrangements of both Fire and Rescue NSW and NSW Rural Fire Service across the State and make any recommendations to ensure they are best practice, address emerging technology and provide the best possible service delivery to the community of NSW.


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In his Foreword of the Independent Review, Mick Keelty indicated —

“There are some natural disasters and bushfires that are beyond human intervention to control. It is therefore incumbent upon all of us to ensure we use an integrated and contemporary approach to those challenges to make our communities safer and more resilient.”

The Review received 183 submissions from members of the public and stakeholders; with 25 people or agencies interviewed and five focus group meetings conducted.

The report looked closely at the adequacy of the fire services response and the call taking and dispatch arrangements for both the Rural Fire Service of NSW and the Fire & Rescue NSW.

“If you read Mick Keelty’s Report, you could have taken out ‘Tathra’ and put ‘Canberra’ in it, in regards to the 2003 fires. You have to

ask, what’s changed?”

“There’s an ongoing push to ensure all our communication systems are the same. Tathra was unique. The fire event was really about

three hours. How do you respond effectively within a three-hour period, as to the Yankees Gap Fire which was 44 days?”

The Report delivered 24 Findings and 12 recommendations for the New South Wales Government. The report can be found at https://www.emergency.nsw.gov.au/Documents/publications/Bega-Valley-Fire-Independent-Review


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6.6.5 Yankees Gap Fire event – August 2018

It is not possible to reflect on Tathra and District’s recovery without acknowledging the Yankees Gap (Bemboka) Fire 50km west of Tathra in September 2018. In the Winter of 2018, just five months after the Tathra & District fire, the Yankees Gap Fire ignited on 15 August.

The fire burnt for 44 days in primarily remote and rugged country, with over 20,000 hectares of land burnt and four homes destroyed. It emitted an enormous amount of smoke bringing renewed anxiety and emotions to residents of the Bega Valley, especially Tathra.

One business owner’s recollections of that day —

“When the Bemboka fires flared, that was a horrific day for us here, because once again, I never got off the phone. ‘There’s smoke! It’s

coming over! I said, ‘No, don’t go. There will be an emergency message if you need to leave. Go and put your kettle on and your TV

on,’…. it just happened all day..”

At the September 2018 Tathra & District Community Recovery Meeting, almost six months post fire, attendees spoke of the impact that the Yankees Gap fire had on residents, with smoke and the constant drone of helicopters in the skies reigniting memories of 18 March. This new fire, ‘rattled some in the community’.

At one point, the Snowy Mountains Highway, a major link between Canberra and the Coast, was closed at one end due to the bushfire, and almost shut down at the other end, due to snow.

So soon after the Tathra fire, in the middle of winter, it highlighted the future challenges for fire management in the region with the long term demands for emergency services, across all times of the year.

The Tathra Recovery Centre was extended to assist the residents of Bemboka, Brogo and Numbugga impacted by the Yankees Gap Fire, and the Bushfire Recovery and Resilience Grants were also extended to allow grants to community groups in these areas.


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The Bega Valley Bushfire Support Service administered the Yankees Gap Bushfire Fencing Grants to enable replacement of kilometres of boundary and internal fencing destroyed by the fire. In addition, dangerous tree removal in the Yankees Gap fire footprint was undertaken by Council and a number of other Council fees and charges were waivered.

The Rural Fire Service reported that the cost of the Yankees Gap fire exceeded $2.4 million.

6.6.6 Improvements for Emergency Management in Tathra

There are ongoing conversations in the broader Sapphire Coast tourism industry now, conversations that would not have begun without being shocked into action by the events of the Tathra and surrounds fire.

Beyond many individuals and businesses renewing or developing their own fire plans the Rural Fire Service (RFS) have been actively working with Tathra and surrounding communities to better prepare and plan for emergency events.

RFS have been reviewing their Neighbourhood Safer Places – Places of Last Resort, identifying locations in Tathra and communicating what that means. They have also been working with the community to develop plans under their RFS ‘Hot Spots’ Program and Community Protection Plan Workshops. These engage the community in planning for and protecting their community and environment.

Bega Valley Shire Council, together with local tourism associations and Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing have developed a Fact Sheet titled ‘Emergency Management Fact Sheet for Tourism Operators in the Bega Valley’ – a one stop shop document for all emergency types. Many accommodation businesses are now using this fact sheet in their welcome information for visitors and their induction of new staff.

It is pleasing to see tourism now being featured in the BVSC Local Emergency Management Plan, with recognition that this region requires a completely different approach with large population growth and dispersal during peak holiday seasons.

How a crisis situation is handled can minimise the impact of events, determine the safety of customers and employees and ensure a speedy recovery for business and the destination as a whole.


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The work that Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing has completed on behalf of the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project with the Crisis Information Hub, is to bring together the most relevant, easy to use information for businesses to enable them to prepare, respond and recover from a range of potential disaster events.

The information hub will be hosted digitally on www.sapphirecoast.com.au and will be freely available to industry. All travel and tourism businesses within the Bega Valley Shire will be encouraged to create and then regularly review their own emergency management & business continuity plans with the resources provided.

In addition to emergency planning, the Hub will also provide a focus on marketing, media and the role that tourism industry leaders will take in guiding local business in the event of a crisis. Crisis communication has become a critical part of destination management and in lessening the negative impact, whilst also addressing the information needs of all parties in a timely and responsible manner.

Tathra businesses also participated in a state-wide project through the NSW Department of Industry, titled ‘Get Back to Business’. This will develop a ‘NSW Small Business Recovery Tool Kit’ using Case Studies and Checklists to assist businesses following disaster events.

The Rural Fire Service has committed to meeting regularly with Chambers of Commerce across the Bega Valley. Owners of Tathra accommodation businesses have highlighted the role and decision making that businesses are often required to make during emergency events and evacuations. The above measures will greatly assist Emergency Preparedness and Response in the event of future disasters.

http://www.sapphirecoast.com.au/


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CHAPTER 7: CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES FOR BUSINESS The challenges that individuals and businesses faced were diverse and sometimes complex, reflective of the variety of their experiences with the fire. This project intentionally chose a range of diverse businesses to better understand how such an experience impacts on different businesses.

The learnings of the businesses were therefore equally diverse, but their key suggestions to other businesses or communities preparing for, or responding to a similar disaster event, was direct and consistent.

7.1 What challenges did we face?

It should not be forgotten that business owners are individuals with their own fire experiences, as well as members of the community often assisting in other capacities, while trying to keep their business going and local people employed.

Just because a business was not destroyed or damaged or did not make an insurance claim, did not mean they were not impacted.

7.1.1 Challenges for myself

Personal challenges were primarily related to health, including such things as maintaining good mental health (staying positive), dealing with lack of sleep, post-traumatic stress, survivor’s guilt and dealing with disappointment if the business was not succeeding in the way it was planned to.

There was also the stress for some in finding a new home, managing a business and a home rebuild, while attempting to get back to ‘normal’. Almost all felt the challenge in supporting emotionally affected customers and community members, or helping them through complex decisions for their families.

It was recognized that the experience was challenging for community members of all ages.

It should be noted that there were emotional interviews (some still 15 months after the fire), as people admitted to ‘dark times’ and many moments of self-doubt for themselves and their business.


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7.1.2 Challenges for my business

Being a business that has no ’losses’, does not claim insurance (or minimal insurance), loses no staff — does not mean everything is fine. Most businesses had a decline in their annual return, some substantially i.e. up to $100,000 or a 20% decline. Some did not reach a crunch point until 15 months after the fire.

Challenges for businesses included understanding and finalising insurance claims, cleaning up and re-establishing businesses, reaching out to customers and retaining bookings or finding new accommodation, reduced club membership due to less people in town, supporting and retaining staff, assessing the impact on other businesses and thus the impact on the full Tathra economy, rescheduling business and work plans, and supporting the community / volunteer groups in ongoing clean-up activities.

Simple customer service now involved extended conversation — supporting their regulars, hearing their stories, making sure people were okay, putting people in touch. Many visitors now also wanted detailed information of people’s experience with the fire.

From one business owner –

“You are part of the community, so beyond the normal business transaction and connection with local people, everyone wanted to

come in and not just talk for one or two minutes, but 15-20-30 minutes and have longer conversations. I hadn’t realised how

exhausted I was from that. But it was so important. I never thought for a minute that it was something I wouldn’t do.”

All this was conducted in a business environment of uncertainty. The fire had occurred ten days before the busy Easter and school holiday period. This season sustains many businesses during the upcoming quieter winter months. Would they have enough cash flow to get by? What would be the long-term impact on Tathra? How might this effect my business plan/ income?

Two businesses and approximately 10 holiday rental homes were destroyed (many existing holiday rentals were then also rented out long term, taking them out of the holiday rental market). They collectively provided over one third of the holiday


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accommodation in Tathra (1,000 + beds). At the time of writing this report none of them have started to be rebuilt. This has had a major impact on tourist numbers in town and thus the income for cafés, restaurants and other businesses.

7.1.3 Challenges for my community

While much of Tathra had been spared — 15% of the houses and 30% of the tourist accommodation had been destroyed or damaged. Families and individuals were scattered across town and the district with no homes to come back to and their only possessions a few things thrown in the car on a Sunday afternoon.

Some residents had been sleeping in the evacuation centre on camp stretchers or mattresses for two to three nights. People slowly trickled into town as it opened up over the Tuesday and Wednesday. It was a town in shock with many residents traumatised from their loss, the fire, the evacuation or the whole experience.

The immediate challenges for the town included making the town safe and operational, communicating with everyone, reaching out and ensuring everyone was supported, helping those in immediate need, establishing a voice for the community, and cleaning up the town and businesses to welcome Easter trade. This was all during a steep learning curve on all things disaster, i.e. insurance, funding, government processes, relief agencies, counselling services, committee meetings, donation management, media relations and political support.

The town was inundated with supporting emergency services, disaster recovery and volunteer work crews, while trying to encourage and support tourists.

One café owner also reported changes in the habits of locals. This may be due to people being misplaced, having lost property in Tathra and needing to relocate to other family members’ homes or nearby towns. It may also be that people perhaps had difficulty with relationships, mixing with people who lost versus those who hadn’t.

In the longer term, challenges arose with rebuilding and the actual timeline required for insurance assessment, BAL (bushfire attack level) assessments for house sites, design and building approval, availability of builders and trades people. At the production of this report 18 months after the fire less than 10% of the houses have been rebuilt.


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A small portion of residents have chosen not to rebuild, taken the insurance, sold the land and moved. Others have sold land and bought an existing house, rather than go through the rebuilding process. This all had an impact on property prices in town with house and land prices increasing, at least initially. This has raised concerns as to if young families might be able to afford to live in Tathra in the future and the change in demographics of the town.

Despite these challenges, as outlined in this report, the community of Tathra has rallied. It has reached out to its residents in need, supporting individuals and business and being a stronger community for it.

7.2 What were the Opportunities?

Whilst the Tathra fire has led to challenges, there are also many opportunities and positives that have arisen as a result of it.

From a business perspective many of the interviewees spoke of how the fire ‘put Tathra on the map’. In reaching out to Tathra people ‘discovered’ this region for the first time, or reconnected following long-term family or personal holidays at Tathra in the past. The ‘Tathra is open for business’ and ‘It’s in Our Nature’ campaigns engaged people as a proactive way to support the towns recovery.

An upgraded mobile phone coverage directly following the fires has been a very positive opportunity for business to offer EFTPOS with confidence and provide their customers with connection.

“With every tragedy, comes some form of opportunity.”

Businesses spoke of the value of connecting with a new network of business professionals who helped improve their business such as insurance brokers, and a local ‘Business Connect’ advisor who guided them directly after the fire and provided ongoing mentoring.

The fire also gave businesses an opportunity to reassess their business plans and take new actions or directions eg. new products (food lines), fully accessible accommodation options.


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“Business Connect were really good. Having a mentor and somebody to talk to was a very valuable resource, and still is. It’s

an ongoing resource available to us in Tathra.”

“An unexpected opportunity is (The Country Club) being nominated as a Neighbourhood Safer Place.”

Funding from the NSW Government for community infrastructure projects that had been long planned and advocated for were announced as part of the recovery support. The Tathra Headland Walk and the Tathra ‘Everyone can play’ play- space will be great assets for the community.

It has also focused an engagement with bushfire preparedness and planning. Engagement between emergency services and tourism operators, community-wide fire planning and the establishment of ‘Neighbourhood Safer Places’ are a benefit to the community and businesses.

“I feel really confident now that I can stand up and say, ‘We got through it (the fire), and we are now back to where we were before

it, and in a better position moving forward.’”

7.3 A final word

There have been many aspects to the learnings discovered by individuals and businesses, reflecting upon before, during and after their experience of the Tathra and Region bushfire. These final words sum up some of the interviewees’ thoughts —

”I’m glad I saw it (the fire) because I know what it was like and have experienced it.”


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“Don’t focus on the bad, that’s the hard bit. But how do you not focus on the bad. How do you focus on the three kids from Victoria,

that put on a little show in the shopping centre and raised $63.00 for the caravan park.”

“I’ve cleared more land, bought decent hoses, bought overalls. Got them hanging in the shed. Hat and goggles….. I’ve geared up a little to be ready to protect. I was going to ………….. you know what? I’ve let the complacency in again. I’ve forgotten about it

already. It’s a bit like swimming with sharks, you forget about that eventually too (laugh).”

“As Tathra returned to life, if there was one good amongst the strife,

it was that through all the horror and fright, the community had pulled together tight,

to support one another through each day and night.”

James Dry, ‘When the fire met the sea’, Tathra Public School


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CHAPTER 8: PARTNER ORGANISATIONS This Project and report has been a partnership between the Tathra Chamber of Commerce, Bega Valley Shire Council and Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing. The Tathra and District fire of the 18 March 2018 has been a challenging and emotional experience for all organisations and their staff, some of whom lost houses. It has called on all our skills and resources. It has required us to reach out and ask for, or accept help. It has taught us new skills and we have gained knowledge and experience.

It has also given us a new appreciation and perspective on the natural environment in which we live and attracts many to this area, along with our community. The strength of our community to reach out and support each other. To serve our community. To appreciate our community. To look after each other.

8.1 Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce – President, Carmen Risby

“Reach out, ask for help, band together and accept assistance. The emotional toll that such an event has on you individually, as well as your business, requires many levels of support” — Carmen Risby

Business owners are community members too. Some lost businesses, others their homes. They also carry an added responsibility for the safety of their customers during an event and the recovery of the town afterwards, as they employ locals and are a key part in helping a town get back on its feet.

Don’t be complacent. Be prepared, have a plan and think through – what would I do?

Organisations, communities, businesses and individuals all need to be prepared and consider the impact such an event could have on their families, their business and their community. What happened


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to Tathra on the 18 March 2018 could have happened to any number of other communities in our region, or around Australia.

As President of the Tathra Chamber of Commerce I am proud that we have been part of this project and report. It is important that we can reach out and ‘pay back’ by sharing our experience with all the people and communities around the Sapphire Coast and across Australia who helped us.

The Business Chambers across our nation play an important part in assisting small business and providing valuable information to them on a range of different topics such as financial, legal, networking, business improvement, innovation, marketing or promotion.

We are pleased that this project has initiated new discussions and partnerships between the Chamber, tourism operators and emergency services. The development of a Emergency Services Information Sheet for Tourism Operators, integration of tourism data into the local Emergency Management Plan, an emergency resources hub for all tourism operators in the region, and a “Get Ready” business forum helping all local business be better prepared for disaster are great outcomes.

They are conversations we have not had before. Partnerships we did know were possible or valued. But they have made our Chamber, our businesses and thus our community stronger and better prepared for the future.

I would like to thank our fellow partners, the Bega Valley Shire Council and Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing for their valued support in helping Tathra recover. We have worked closely with many committed staff from both organisations who reached out to Tathra with their skills and their hearts. We would also like to thank the NSW Government and Member for Bega, Andrew Constance, for their quick response and funding support for Tathra.

On behalf of the Chamber I would like to acknowledge the work of local resident Mark Darby who developed this project and put together the Community Resilience Innovation Program grant application. I would also like to thank Suzette Fullerton for her Project Management and working with the Chamber to enable the community to learn from the events of 18 March and become a more resilient community into the future.

I would also like to acknowledge the small, but strong and dedicated group that make up the Tathra & District Chamber of Commerce for their ongoing support,


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administration, friendship and commitment in delivering a major project, whilst still recovering from a disaster themselves.

The Tathra Chamber of Commerce want to share the learnings of their experience of the fire event, through this report in order that other communities may also understand the rollercoaster of emotions and challenges that transpire following adversity.

“In the event of us getting through the fires, I’ve ‘Googled’ things and tried to find help. The only thing that I could find in relation to business recovery was a flood that was around Lismore. It was

very hard to compare a flood with a fire. I hope that no other little town has to endure something like this again, but this is Australia,

so it will happen. I hope that when someone else goes to ‘Google’ what they should do, or how they got help, or how someone

survived this, I hope that ‘Tathra’ comes up in their Google search.”

Tathra has always been and will continue to be a strong community. Tathra has always and will continue to be a beautiful place to holiday. Tathra has always been and will continue to be a wonderful place to raise a family. Most importantly, Tathra is now an amazing place to do business.


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8.2 Bega Valley Shire Council – General Manager, Leanne Barnes

“The Tathra and District Bushfire has changed our landscape, our people and our communities forever. During the emergency period and throughout the recovery phase, it’s true to say that our communities have been buoyed by a deep sense of identity and pride in where we live and who we are. This has translated into everyday compassion and support for others and an impressive level of resilience, despite suffering the devastating loss and damage to properties and personal mementoes.

The key focus for Council has been to walk with the community at every stage and they will continue to support the communities of Tathra, Reedy Swamp and Vimy Ridge and those affected in Yankees Gap, Brogo and Bemboka (which were impacted by fire later in the year) as they adjust to life with their grief and healing.” — Leanne Barnes.

Value of Partnership

Bega Valley Shire Council is extremely proud to have been a partner in the Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project. Getting tourism operators and businesses back up and operating was a key priority for the community and the Council. The project has seen a range of projects, programs and support for Tathra and other tourism related businesses look to the future, learning from the past.


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The wonderful support that came from near and far following the bushfire disaster was absolutely overwhelming, however, it was imperative that as the community moved into the recovery phase, the word was spread that while our collective spirit had been severely tested, we would collectively be moving forward in the most positive manner possible.

Absolutely vital to this was supporting our local business and the tourism sector more broadly. It was essential that visitors returned and enjoyed the town and surrounds as they always have and that it was quickly made clear that Tathra was open for business again. Council worked with the Chamber of Commerce and hosted a business and tourism sub-committee. Contact with businesses was undertaken and planning and building advice and support was provided where appropriate. The Chamber, individual businesses and regional bodies are to be commended in the broader support provided. This resilience project proved extremely successful, with the combination of innovation and education sparking new opportunities and providing our local businesses with the tools necessary to thrive in the aftermath and importantly into the future. We were very impressed with the level of generosity provided by representatives from other communities impacted by disaster and we are now looking to do that ourselves.

There remains an intoxicating level of enthusiasm and optimism and that is in no small due to the work done throughout this project. Working with the committed Chamber, Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing and Destination Southern NSW, this case study and resources available through the Office of Emergency Management who have funded this critical project will be available widely. There are two key outcomes from this we are committed to – firstly supporting and helping tourism businesses locally recover and grow, and secondly sharing the learning from our area with others so they are better prepared and more resilient.

Leanne Barnes General Manager Bega Valley Shire Council


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8.3 Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing – Managing Director, Anthony Osborne

I am pleased to commend this excellent report to the Sapphire Coast Tourism Community and congratulate Mark Darby on his work in bringing this project to light and also the work of Suzette Fullerton in building such a compelling and detailed account. Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing look forward to supporting this great project with the delivery of the Tourism Crisis Information Hub. The Hub will be a valuable outcome of this project and will aggregate the best material available to support the tourism industry in crisis preparation, response and recovery.

During the challenges post fire, two things stand out for me. The first being the speedy investment and action from Bega Valley Shire Council, Tathra Chamber of Commerce and Sapphire Coast Tourism to implement a campaign designed to minimize loss of peak period bookings immediately after the event. The Open for Business campaign was in market within 72hrs. This was supported with the launch of a NSW State Government/Destination New South Wales funded recovery campaign that was in market in the following months. I sometimes wonder at the strength of the members of the Tathra Chamber of Commerce to find the energy to focus on recovery campaigning whilst confronting the challenges to their own business and incomes.

The second thing was the loss of some 30% of the available bed nights. A loss that continues to hurt the business community. The tourism community, though, continues to over deliver in service mode and take care of the visitors that continue to come. We feel confident that this selflessness with be rewarded with growing visitation into the future.

Anthony Osborne Managing Director Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing


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Community

Supplement The Community’s response to recovery

As this Report focusses primarily on the Business Community of Tathra & District, the following Community Supplement is included to outline the response & activities initiated by Tathra groups and

individuals to aid in its recovery.


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CHAPTER 9: COMMUNITY SUPPLEMENT

CS 1 The Community

“It is important to emphasise, that disasters are about people, and that responding to disasters – pre, during and post impact – is about managing and supporting people.” — Anne Eyre, Psychosocial aspects of recovery: practical implications for disaster managers.

Tathra is a strong community with many clubs, associations and active participation by residents and visitors to the region. It is important to recognise the wide range of community groups and volunteers, that stepped up to assist in the town’s recovery, many with new initiatives not seen before in the town.

Community initiatives and projects post the fire brought together residents and supporters to help the town recover.

CS 1.1 Community Reference Group

The Tathra Community Reference Group was formed at a meeting of residents, primarily representatives of community organisations in Tathra, on the 23 March, just five days after the fire event. The group’s aim was to provide a coordinated community voice, support and response to the fire recovery.

The initial meeting was attended by the Member for Bega, Andrew Constance MP and Euan Ferguson, Recovery Coordinator. Euan stressed the need for a community led recovery and the Recovery Team’s aim to work closely with the local community through the Reference Group. He identified several priorities including —

• housing, • clothing and food needs, • ensuring that businesses got up and going, • cleaning up fire debris, and • welfare of the whole community.

Over the following 12 months the Reference Group coordinated —

• receiving and distributing donations of goods — the Reference Group managed the collection and distribution of donated goods using the Surf Club


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and Tathra Hall. This was a substantial task with trucks, trailers and car loads of donated goods arriving from all over Australia for up to two months after the fire. The Tathra Hall was used for donated goods with 5-10 volunteers each day assisting to sort and distribute a range of donated items such as clothes, blankets, electrical appliances and toys,

• clean-up crews to assist residents — the Reference Group, through the local Lions Club, coordinated volunteer teams to carry out fire damaged clean-up with property owners and in the community over the following months,

• distribution of cash donations — from the Tzu Chi Foundation, a Buddhist compassionate relief charity, and

• community support — through activities such as the ongoing community newsletter and town Christmas lights/competition for the best Christmas house display. Members of the Community Reference Group contributed to the many recovery groups and meetings, keeping the community informed.

The Tathra Bushfire Community Fund also collected $22,000 in donations and supported a variety of community initiatives such as Christmas Lights for Tathra and the anniversary of the fire. A welfare committee was formed and published a community newsletter. The Reference Group committed to producing and distributing this newsletter through to March 2020.

A spokesperson for the Group said —

“Numerous people put their hand up to bring many of these things together. The volunteer response was magnificent and uplifting. The job is far from over and the Group will continue to monitor and respond to any issues, or calls for assistance from the community. “


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CS 1.2 Tathra Surf Life Saving Club

With a proud 100 year history of serving the local community Tathra Surf Life Saving Club once again stepped up during and following the fire. Early Sunday afternoon, 18 March, surf club members were finishing their rostered patrol. As the fire raced into Tathra callout teams from the Tathra and Pambula surf clubs were contacted to help with evacuations. A number of inflatable rescue boats (IRB’s) and a jet ski headed up the river in case people needed to be rescued via water. People soon began arriving at the beach to take refuge, but the thick smoke made the situation extremely difficult. Police and the RFS were telling residents to leave town and head to Bega and Bermagui.

Bermagui surf club became a makeshift evacuation centre to offer support to evacuated Tathra residents. Tathra Club Captain Justin Gouvernet said –

“It highlights the unique capability of Surf Life Saving to deal with emergency situations and act as the backbone of small communities when tragedies strike.”

On Wednesday residents began arriving back in town and a handful of club members set up the club as a recovery centre, accepting donated food and providing a venue for recovery services workers. Donations of food and clothing began to flood in and the Club became a focal point for information and support.

“The role our members performed was as much about looking after people’s mental wellbeing as it was physical,” said Justin. “Keeping people positive is vital, making them feel like they’ve not been left on their own.

Everybody pulled together and this is where the surf club worked so well. We had the cooking facilities, storage for food and equipment, including being able to store things like chainsaws, rakes and hoes in the boatshed and we had space for people to camp on the floor.


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Surf Life Savers are also organised, competent and fit people who cope well in a crisis. As volunteers we want to contribute,” said Justin.

Amazingly, while a number of club members were personally impacted by the fire and lost or sustained damage to their own homes, patrols on the beach continued as usual the following weekend as well as competitors attending the Branch Senior and Nipper carnivals at Pambula Beach.

The Surf Club accommodated Team Rubicon volunteers, sleeping on their floor and using the facilities.

“They are a great help with a ‘can do’ attitude and the organisational skills they bring,” Justin said. “We were all gobsmacked when we learnt Team Rubicon Australia is only one year old and had borrowed money from their global organisation to come and help us in Tathra.

From the club’s perspective, it’s been a strangely positive experience and most importantly, there were no deaths. We hope we don’t have to deal with emergency situations but it’s good to know we can when they happen.”

CS 1.3 Tathra Post Office

Post Offices are often described as the hub, or heart of a town. This took on new meaning for Tathra following the fire. With homes and many post boxes destroyed, internet and email connection disrupted and the usual community networks in disarray – the small “As big as a shoebox” Tathra Post Office became a crucial communication centre.

Nationally, Australia Post also reached out directly to the Post Office, putting them in touch with their emergency support staff. “Is your Post Office burnt down?”, came the inquiry from Melbourne. “We can have a mobile Post Office in two shipping containers on site for you in 24 hours”, was the prompt offer. It took 24 hours to confirm, but luckily it was still standing.

Want to connect with someone? Need to get a community message out? Need to know what homes had been damaged, and / or didn’t have a post box? The Post Office would know – or could find out.


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Hundreds of homes had their mail on hold, or redirected. Packages could not be delivered. Donations of all different forms from clothes to cash envelopes started flowing into Tathra ‘Care of’ the Post Office. All this required processes and storage well beyond normal operations.

People were trying to connect with each other – tourists looking to reconnect with locals they had met on the day, evacuees with people that helped, and locals with each other. When all else failed they asked at the Post Office.

2018 Australia Post Licensee Awards — The work and contribution of the Tathra Post Office has been recognised. The licensees Deb and Ian Alker’s Post Office took first place across the rural south region, the ACT and NSW state and territory, as well as the national award in the 2018 Australia Post Licensee Awards. The award is for excellence in customer service, operations, and contributions to the local community.

Since the March bushfire staff have helped residents with photocopying, scanning, emailing and faxing, as they complete paperwork to begin rebuilding their lives.

“We do it all. You bring your washing in and we’ll do it,” Ms Alker said with a laugh. “We have been faxing all day because people don’t have fax machines at home anymore because they were told nobody uses them anymore, but it’s been important for paperwork after the bushfire”, said Ms Alker.

The award is good for the town this year, it’s good for people to have something to be proud of,” Ms Alker said.

2019 Citizen of the Year — Deb’s commitment to her community was also recognised with her being selected as the 2019 Bega Valley Citizen of the Year. It was noted that “even though some of Deb’s family and friends lost their homes in the fire, Deb was committed to keeping the Post Office services running as normal, and in so doing she provided an important community hub, disseminating and sharing vital information about bushfire-related services and meetings, offering people a reassuring chat, and providing that all-important social glue in a time of great stress and distress”.


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As a grateful resident said,

“Going to the Post Office was a little bit like going home – especially for those of us who had no home to return to.”

In July, 2019, the Tathra Post Office was awarded the winner in the 2019 Australia Post Retail Awards in Sydney, taking first in the region, NSW and in Australia, making it officially the best little post office in the Country.

CS 1.4 Tathra Lions Club

The Tathra Lions Club and the Lions Club network played a pivotal role in Tathra’s recovery from the fire. Members were involved in the Community Reference Group and many other committees and activities. Lions Club members established and staffed the Tathra Hall as a hub for donated goods and a place for people to stop by for a chat or a cuppa. Lions Club volunteers and other helpers spent much of their time unpacking and sorting the enormous volume of donated clothes and goods. They also arranged the long-term storage of donated goods,

to be distributed over the following months as families were resettled and were able to assess their needs. Impacted residents could also apply to the Lions Club for assistance with accessing household white goods, electrical appliances, gardening equipment etc.

Following the departure of Team Rubicon after the first month, Tathra Lions volunteers continued to assist residents clear their burnt gardens, fences and surrounding land. The Lions Club partnered with Tathra Landcare and Bega Valley Shire Council to host a Community Planting Day at Tathra Headland Reserve on 20 October. This initiative allowed locals and visitors to be involved in the recovery of the natural environment.

In support of the generous donation of accommodation at Uluru in central Australia as a prize to raise money for Tathra, the Lions Club arranged for a donated airfare


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to be part of the prize package and sold 600 tickets. The $3000 raised went to the Mayoral Appeal Fund.

The wider Lions Club community around Australia also reached out to Tathra. The District Governor activated the District Disaster Committee and sought assistance from Clubs to aid the recovery efforts.

A special account was established within a few days of the fire and over $90,000 in donations was received from Lions Clubs all over Australia. Successful applications were made to the Australian Lions Foundation and to the Lions Clubs International Foundation for grants under their respective disaster assistance and a special committee was formed of representatives of the Tathra, Bega and Pambula Merimbula Lions Clubs.

CS 1.5 Tathra Public School

Tathra Public School is a vital community hub with 215 students aged 5-12 years. The school played a pivotal role in Tathra’s recovery, hosting the Community Meetings, working with students who were affected by the events of March 18 and putting together a book of stories, poems and illustrations, prepared by the students which reflected their experiences and feelings of the days and months following the fires.

Initial reports on morning television following the fire, indicated that the school was totally destroyed. The Principal quickly rectifed this by subsequently taking control of all communication to the wider community, indicating ‘one point of truth’. This was done via the school’s official Facebook page, with the Principal signing off every post personally.

The school itself lost approximately 120 perimeter trees and a vast amount of external fencing on the northern side, leaving the school grounds exposed to sun and wind. The school also lost a large shade cloth used for protecting student play areas. Their loved vegetable garden, which at the time of the fire was ‘thriving’, was decimated. The School was closed for a week and before it could reopen, extensive cleaning needed to be undertaken. Trees had to be felled and grounds had to be made secure. Some 15 months later, dust and ash was still making its way into classrooms, offices and the library.

The NSW Department of Education immediately deployed Counsellors to the school, who could be accessed by students and parents. Staff could access counselling


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through the Department’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if they wished to do so.

On the Thursday following the fire, the Director of Educational Leadership for the Batemans Bay Network and the school Principal called all staff for an urgent meeting, in Bega. This was a planning and support meeting. Staff gathered to support one another and plan the reopening of the school, including the response plan to support students. One of the initial tasks was to determine which students and families had been directly impacted. Some students were placed on a ‘watch list’ by the school as a precaution to assessing any behavioural change and providing support should parents ask for it.

The NSW Department of Education planned to send in additional teachers from Sydney to assist, however the Principal felt that local, retired teachers, many of whom knew the students personally, would be more appropriate to assist in the aftermath of the event.

One week after the fire, on Monday 26 March, 2018, the school reopened in a casual capacity. Students were encouraged to bring a parent/carer with them; no uniforms were required; students were free to walk around the School, viewing the surrounding blackened landscape. A social barbecue was provided. Students were encouraged to share their experiences.

The next day, school resumed with a ‘business as usual’ approach. The school ensured that there were lots of fun activities in the curriculum for the first few weeks. An additional strategy was that an adult or teacher rode on the bus transferring students in and around Tathra espcially to assist those students who lived out of town and who had not yet seen the devastation in Thompsons Drive or in the town itself.

Three weeks later, on 12 April 2018, the school’s major annual fundraiser, ‘Pedlars Parade’ was held, this time with all funds raised given to the local Rural Fire Service and National Parks Services, as a ‘Thank you for saving our school.’

Tathra Public School was the recipient of donated items supplied by other schools and organisations across Australia. Truckloads of donations turned up, mostly unannounced and the school was required to employ extra temporary staff to cope with this. Some of the donated goods were not useable or able to be stored in the school. Some donors had not known that the school was still standing, believing it to


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have burnt down and sent uniforms and stationery that wasn’t needed. These items were sent to the Recovery Centre and Town Hall for redistribution. Monetary donations were received from across Australia also. School Aid began a campaign that raised $30,000 for the school to help rebuild the gardens and create a new shaded play-space.

The school worked closely with parents and students to modify language used from what was being portrayed on news reports, ‘devastating, terrifying, catastrophic’ etc, focussing on the positives — no one died or was badly injured, the community is strong, our beautiful town is still here, trees are regrowing etc.

In the months following the fire, the school selected students who had good writing skills and artistic talent to, whilst the fire was quite fresh in minds, draw and write about their experiences and feelings. Bega Rotary donated funds so the school could employ a specialist teacher and artist to work with the students in the development of the book. The book was published in May 2019, titled ‘When the Fire Met the Sea.’

The school also took advantage to be able to work with the Rural Fire Service team and embedded topics in their environmental education programs such as Landscaping after fire; Epicormic Growth, What happens in the environment after fire, and How Indigenous people use fire to look after the environment.

Caring for students after the fires has continued to be at the forefront of the school’s wellbeing programs. An Information Session has been held titled ‘Helping Children After Disasters’ and the school is working with the Australian National University Medical School’s Australian Child & Adolescent Trauma, Loss & Grief Network to provide ongoing support to staff and the school community through Professional Learning and future parent information sessions.

‘When the fire met the sea’. Tathra Public School publication. May 2019.


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The Bega Fire Control centre has formally nominated Tathra Public School as a neighbourhood safer place (NSP) for bush fire protection purposes.

In September 2019, the Tathra Public School was announced the winner of the NSW Resilient Australia Awards (School Category) for their entry ‘When the Fire Met the Sea’.

CS 1.6 Tathra Mountain Bike Club

One of Tathra’s major attractions are the Mountain Bike Trails that zig zag through the bush on land belonging to the Bega Aboriginal Land Council (BALC). In 2010, a group of volunteers and community members worked alongside the BALC to create 20 kilometres of safe, environmentally sustainable multi-purpose tracks. The tracks were initially known as ‘Doolagharl’ meaning ‘Hairy Monster’, thought by local indigenous peoples to have inhabited the area. In 2012, the name was changed by Aboriginal Elders to ‘Bundadung’, meaning wombat. Local trail builders have now extended the tracks to approximately 50 km of flowy, fun and safe riding within a short riding or driving distance from Tathra central.

Tathra’s mountain bike trails are an important part of the local tourism economy, and therefore play a part in the overall recovery of Tathra from the fire event. Tathra hosts a major event on the mountain bike calendar, the ‘Tathra Enduro’, on the June long weekend each year, bringing in riders from all around the country.

Three quarters of the trails were damaged as a result of the Tathra and District fire on March 18, 2018. Volunteers were quick to respond with an Enduro event looming. Proceeds of the yearly event go directly back into supporting local community organisations as well as providing upkeep and maintenance on the tracks.

“One of the first tasks we (Team Rubicon) did, was help clean up the Tathra Mountain Bike Tracks. I thought in the scheme of things, that wasn’t the priority. However, over Easter, I saw all the cars coming into Tathra, and nearly every one of them had at least one Mountain Bike on the top. I then realised how important mountain biking is to Tathra.” — ‘Greyshirts’

“Getting them (the mountain bike trails) up and running was a big thing.”


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An unexpected opportunity for Tathra’s Mountain Biking —

“The free publicity, a lot of promotion about the (Mountain Bike) Trails through the Mountain Bike Club and Destination NSW. The fires have definitely put Tathra on the map.”

CS 2 Community Groups & Initiatives

Community initiatives and projects post the fire brought together residents and supporters to help the town recover. A number of these projects were supported by small community resilience grants funded by the NSW Government Office of Emergency Management and administered by Bega Council. These included-

CS 2.1 Tathra Firebirds

The Tathra Firebirds10 is a creative collective, with a focus on creating a ‘safe, gentle and accessible space’ for people to just be and do what they wish with their hands, be it knitting, colouring, drawing, origami, writing or something else. The concept by the group convenors aimed for the sessions to be ‘no effort’ to participants, as they did not want fire-affected people to be additionally burdened by a need to think about or provide materials, or to have to set-up a creative space by themselves.

Eight creative sessions and three workshops have been held since the Tathra fire, allowing anyone who was ‘bushfire affected’ to attend. Participants brought along their own individual projects and also participated in collective art pieces. The first gathering was on 4 July, 2018 three and a half months after the fire event. The collective gave people a way to share their experience of the fire and their ongoing journey through recovery – if they chose to.

10 Information provided by Tathra Firebirds Convenor Amanda Galvin Myers.


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On the 24 & 25 November, 2018, an exhibition of all of the work that the Tathra Firebirds had done throughout the year was on display at the Tathra Hotel. Titled ‘Feisty Firebirds Exhibit and Fire Artefacts’, the exhibition was well received, with a good mix of paintings, drawings, art and craft items as well as many items on display that had been rescued from the ashes.

The proceeds from the exhibition went to the northern Californian town of Paradise, which was devastated by an out of control fire which destroyed 6,700 buildings, the majority of which were homes. A school and other community infrastructure buildings were also destroyed. Unfortunately, the town also saw more than a dozen deaths as a result of the fire. The Tathra Firebirds wanted to make a statement about sharing and caring across borders by donating funds raised from the exhibition to this community – “A small gesture, but an important one.”

Tables were set up at the Tathra Hotel using colourful materials as part of the Tathra Firebirds ‘Get Creative’ sessions. Each person had their own workspace, and participants chose from a selection

of prepared resources and a range of art materials, or brought their own art and craft. Photo courtesy of Tathra Firebirds.


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The Tathra Firebirds had a bracelet making workshop and networked closely with other groups in and around Tathra. They made Christmas decorations for an associated project, such as hand-made baubles, bunting, and delicious sweets, which were put into Christmas ‘goody bags’ and given to the Recovery Centre to be distributed to those who lost their homes in the fires.

“Thank you. Firebirds provided a vital healing place for me and my family. A place to be, to share, to be still, to create.”

In September 2019, the Tathra Firebirds achieved ‘Highly Commended’ status in the NSW Resilient Australia Awards (Community Category) for their entry ‘Creative Collaboration after Community Trauma.’

CS 2.2 Book Love for Tathra

“When realisation hit me that fire might come over the tree-covered hill across from my home, it wasn’t easy to focus on what to take and what to leave behind. I didn’t even think about our important documents; all I could think about were photos and books.” — Melissa Pouliot, Tathra Author

Bracelet Making Workshop, Photo courtesy of Tathra Firebirds


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Author Melissa Pouliot put the call out after the Tathra fire on social media to donate new books. She also added boxes of her own novels, further spreading the word about ‘Book Love for Tathra’ through interviews on ABC radio and ACT Writers Centre. She specifically asked for new books only — to be handed something brand new would hold so much more significance as it marks a fresh start. She directed second-hand books to the Annual Bega Rotary Book Fair.

Jackie French AM, donated over 200 books and helped spur many more authors and publishing houses into action. With support from Collins Merimbula, Candelo Books and members of the resilient Tathra community, Melissa hosted a special event on February 16, 2019 – a month before the twelve —month anniversary.

“Stories can bring us together. We are no longer alone, lost in our memories. Books can be an escape, too. But mostly, sharing books, food, laughter is the most powerful way I know to say ‘We are here. And we will make life good.’” — Jackie French

Lessons learnt-

• Books aren’t an immediate need, I envisaged a longer-term distribution event/day. I did distribute some book love packages earlier, but the collection grew too big for home storage so the best option was to store them safely for a future event.

• Timing was important. Initially it was going to be six months after the fires but with delays in rebuilding, this was too soon for people to have boxes of books to move around. Consultation with the Community Reference Group (representation from local clubs and organisations) and the Council Recovery Centre staff helped with timing.

• Keeping a better inventory of what’s in each box, donated from where, genre and quantity would have made it easier to set up for the event.

• Including people who couldn’t physically attend by putting boxes of books together for them.

Dennie Quintal, left, and Melissa with Collins donations


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• Leftover books were offered to the broader community and any left after that, donated to Tathra Public School, Bega Rotary Club Book Fair and other recovery events, with proceeds going back to Tathra.

• Some people were uncomfortable in accepting the donations, so we worked hard to reassure them. We also provided boxes and packing tape so people could pack their books for storage as many still hadn’t rebuilt.

Book Love for Tathra was a closed event for the families who lost their homes, or were tenants in a rental property that was destroyed. Deb Alker from Tathra Post Office was able to encourage people to participate who weren’t sure what it was all about – more families were reached as a result.

Bega Valley Fire Recovery and Resilience Grants Funding was sourced for venue hire, catering, invitations and posters. Everything was bought locally, supporting Tathra businesses who were also feeling the impact of the fire through lost income. Funding also allowed for the inclusion of Jackie French to make it an extra special occasion.

There were more than 3000 books in the collection and volunteers were crucial– Melissa called on one of her friends who manages a bookstore to help arrange the books in sections to make it easier for people to browse. Betta Electrical store provided their truck and a volunteer driver to collect books, and friends helped to lift book boxes, sort books, set up, pack up, greet people, pass food around etc.

Many families shared rebuilding stories and offered support and guidance. Some people who’d moved away said it made them feel a part of their community again. Children were delighted when told they could take home as many books as they wanted. A children’s reading area was set up to enable parents to circulate while their children sat happily reading.


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“We all had a very special day. It was emotional for many reasons, most of all because of the love and generosity that you and so many others have shown us, without ever even knowing who we are. It’s humbling and so reassuring of the compassionate human spirit that still thrives in our communities. Thank you!”

“Just picked up the most amazing book package from #booklovefortathra. Cannot wipe the smile off my face. Huge thank you to Melissa Pouliot, you are beyond words. Wonderful.”

“Wow. That is so beautiful. Thank you. From a family of book lovers.”

View the Book Love for Tathra film and contact Melissa via her Facebook page — https://www.facebook.com/melissa.pouliot.author/

CS 2.3 Stories of March 18 (SM18)

Stories of March 18 started with three people who had experienced the Tathra & District fire. The group felt that it was very beneficial in sharing their own story, and thought that if it helped them, then it would probably help others too. The group then spread the word and invited others to find meaning in telling their particular stories.

“We quickly realised there were a myriad of perspectives on the day, and stories from the personal to the political.”

Telling stories is a very natural human response to momentous events, disasters, and disruptions. It’s the way we make ‘sense’ of what happens and can afford us the relief of moving the memories of a traumatic event from existing inside us, out into the shared space of community. In putting our stories into recorded form there can be a relief from having to carry them with us.

Similarly, there can be deep grief about the losses and changes many of us experienced because of the fire. For many people, having an opportunity to share this grief and work through it in group settings, can feel much ‘safer’ and less lonely and isolating when done in the company of others who’ve had similar experiences. This shared process also helps build community connectedness and resilience.

https://www.facebook.com/melissa.pouliot.author/


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The name ‘Stories of March 18’ was in recognition that not every story was directly about the Tathra & District Fire, as there were other fires across the Shire on that day.

After collecting a few stories, the Group realised that it would be helpful for some people to have a guided experience of writing on this difficult subject. They were successful in obtaining a grant through the Bega Valley Shire Council’s ‘Recovery & Resilience Grant Program Funding’, which funded writing teacher, Peter Shepherd to come to Tathra for two all-day workshops. They were well attended and writers ranged from those who had never written about themselves before, to experienced writers.

The process in the groups was gentle and cathartic. People found a safe place to develop a creative expression of the deep emotions that the fire ignited.

“Some of us told stories of loss, some of hope, all of great change and disruption.”

Bega Valley Shire Council library staff have also provided the Group with enthusiastic support and assistance in compiling the trove into a permanent, living, searchable format. The ‘trove’ also forms a valuable record of the events of the day and aftermath that can be tapped into by those seeking further research and understanding of things such as community resilience, effects of trauma, behaviour of fire in the landscape, and fire-resistance of the built environment.

These quotes from two participants in the writing workshop —

“I was so deeply moved by the experience of the writing workshop. being held so graciously, gently and powerfully by you and all those present, allowed me to safely express the full range of my emotions and feelings regarding the fires and their aftermath. After I left, I felt that I had been filled with nectar. I was enriched and nourished, having the time to just be, and to be with my imagination, memories, thoughts and desires, allowed me to touch a place deep inside me from which I know true and lasting healing will come. Thank you, for holding that space.”

"The workshops with Peter Shepherd were perfect. The writing exercises he explored with us allow the thoughts to come out


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and onto paper. We shared stories laughed, cried and wrote. The space that Peter created in the room was perfect, he was respectful and truly empathetic. I attended the workshop both days and having different people made the same exercises different and allowed me to further explore the impacts of this event. Peter managed to remove the pressure of judging our abilities and just do. I would happily do it again.

It is the most powerful and healing event/ times since we lost everything. Thanks to all those who attended and shared. I don’t believe anybody else could have run such an emotionally resonating weekend. Thank you, Peter.”

CS 2.4 Tathra Pub Choir

Pub Choirs were considered to have started in Brisbane in 2017 as an opportunity for people to sing together in a family-friendly, relaxed environment where the emphasis was on social engagement. The organization’s website says the concept of a pub choir is that “everybody can sing, and we’re on a mission to prove it.”

The Tathra Pub Choir was the idea of local resident Anne Hamilton-Foster and funded through a Tathra and District Fire Recovery and Resilience grant administered by the Bega Valley Shire Council.

The key part of a pub choir was all facets of a community coming together. Anne connected with Melbourne Psychologist Rob Gordon’s definition of the word ‘recovery’ as breaking the word down to, ‘re’ equals again, return, repeat and ‘covery’ equals cover, to immerse in a medium, so recovery is to re-immerse in the medium of social life.

“A pub choir fits that bill nicely,” Hamilton-Foster explained.

The Tathra Pub Choir is held each Thursday evening led by different local musicians who alternate as conductors with a choice of well-known, or original songs.

“I think getting together and singing is extremely healing, and that is our number one concern for Tathra and the communities affected by the March fires,” organiser Anne Hamilton-Foster said.


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CS 2.5 Christmas Lights for Tathra

To light up the town and lift spirits at Christmas, a number of locals took on the initiative to spread cheer throughout Tathra with town Christmas lights. Residents were also encouraged to decorate their homes with Christmas lights, with a chance to win a share of $500 for the best displays. The initial funding was raised through a cake stall at the local shops, supported by donations of lights from Bunnings in Batemans Bay and other local stores.

Trees, bus shelters and fences were adorned with solar lights put up by local volunteers, including the Tathra Sunshine Boardriders Club who took on decorating the tall Norfolk Pines in town with a donated cherry picker.

It made it okay to put out lights and celebrate Christmas. It also gave the town a touch of cheer and encouraged people who had lost their house decorations collected over many years to begin collecting again.

CS 2.6 Tathra Moments

There were many caring, spontaneous moments and activities that just happened through the initiative of community residents, or people reaching out to the community. Once such initiative was ‘I Love Tathra’.

‘I Love Tathra’ — initiated by a local who designed these stickers and had them printed at their own expense, then dropped them off at the Post Office to hand out.

They were incredibly popular and handed out at Community Meetings, the Recovery Centre and around town.


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Other community activities and initiatives included —

• Ladies ‘Lunches on the Beach’ — were organised at the Tathra Beach Café with 50-60 women attending, many returning several times. The lunches, accompanied by donated door prizes (cakes, preserves, flowers, handmade craft items, gift vouchers etc) provided an opportunity for women to talk together about the fire, share stories and knowledge of other activities in the town.

• Hundreds of crocheted, knitted and patchworked rugs were donated from individual women and women’s craft groups from all over Australia. One woman from Braidwood drove to Tathra with a car full of quilts and left them at the Tathra Pre-School for further distribution. Church groups all over Australia make quilts for disaster events, and have them ready to send to communities affected by flood, fire etc. The hand-made quilts were distributed to those residents impacts by the Tathra & District and Yankees Gap fire events.

• Garden restoration — Local residents grew cuttings and had a free garden stall in the town to assist people with garden restoration.

• Christmas Cheer — Australian Women's Weekly did a feature article on Tathra for the 2018 Christmas Edition. Journalist Samantha Trenoweth featuring several women in the article who played a significant role in the town’s recovery. Following the article, further donations arrived including handmade rugs and a box of ceramic Christmas decorations, which were also distributed by women in Tathra, to those who were impacted by the fire.

• Street art – adhoc art in the town such as yarnbombing, a Tibetan flag ‘gateway’ into the burnt forest and other artistic contributions – all done by women who felt that the fire was so horrible, something human in response had to be done to reverence the destruction.

• The Country Women’s Association played a critical role with catering for the Evacuation Centre and also provided morning tea at the Firebirds Exhibition. “I practically burst into tears when I saw all the beautiful cakes, slices and scones.”.

• Local Land Services found, cared for and reunited many residents with their pets. Vets in the area offered free check ups and surgery (in some cases for up to a year) for the animals of residents impacted by the Tathra fire.


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• Tzu Chi — volunteer members of the worldwide Buddhist Compassion Relief foundation Tzu Chi travelled down from Sydney to Tathra on 22 April 2018 to share song, food and goodwill amongst the community. They distributed gifts and financial aid to all families that had been impacted by the fire. It was a moving gesture that touched residents who welcomed them back for the anniversary of the fire.

CS 2.7 Twelve month anniversary

A variety of events were organised as part of the Tathra fire one-year anniversary. David Younger, Clinical and Consultant Psychologist, in his podcast leading up to the anniversary of the fires provided this advice —

“Take stock and make the space before the anniversary to think about what the anniversary means for you personally.”

“We talked about it (the fire) for a very long time afterwards. Months and months. There are still people obviously that haven’t moved back into town.”

“Twelve months ago, the community were all in the same frame of mind, mostly shock. Twelve months on, there is a huge variance in where people are at with their personal recovery.”


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The community events were designed to help people remember what is good and great about the Tathra community, and to take strength and support for the ongoing challenges. Events included (but were not limited to) —

• A Bushwalk through the burnt forest

• Tree Planting on the Tathra Headland

• Taylor Square Get Together with free BBQ, music, children’s activities and an official thanks

• Royal Military College Duntroon Band at the Tathra Bowling Club

• It Just Takes Time art exhibition exploring the theme of regeneration and recovery after the 2018 Tathra Bushfire

• Religious services at the Tathra Hall and Tathra Headland – a Brief reflection – fire, rubble, regrowth and hope.

Tathra Bushwalk from Thompsons Road to Taylor Square in recognition of one-year anniversary. Photo courtesy S Fullerton.


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“I’m one of the ones that took the view that after a terrible experience, some people have come through it successfully, and

others are struggling, and I didn’t really see a huge reason to celebrate anything. I was quite pleased that it (the anniversary

events) was kept fairly low-key.”

“It’s been very difficult. I had some staff members that lost houses, just the emotional turmoil that people are going through.

Personally, for the business, going up and down, staff who have lost places, people who are unsure about longevity of jobs, can’t find

places to rent, all of that stuff. It’s been quite a tumultuous year.”

Volunteers tree planting on the Tathra Headlands (Anniversary event) – Photo courtesy of Bega Valley Shire Council


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CS 2.8 Tathra Garden Forum

The idea of a Tathra Garden Forum began with an approach to Chris Hamilton by Yates Regional Manager, Susie Kontos, around six months after the fire in 2018. Spring was almost over and the town was still in shock, so the idea was set aside for a later date.

In Autumn 2019 Pip Marshman and Chris applied for a Bega Valley Fire Recovery and Resilience Grant to organise a Garden Forum Weekend for the following spring (18 months post fire). The idea was to source a varied group of speakers to help those who lost their gardens in the Tathra, Vimy Ridge, Reedy Swamp and Bemboka/ Brogo fires to “Get Back in the Garden”, and potentially aid recovery.

Chris said, “The garden is a place to reflect and be in touch with the world around you. It is also a place to share with family and neighbours, a place of connection, a place of healing.”

Several speakers including Tim Edmondson from Get Growing in Canberra, Susie Kontos from Yates, local landscapers, horticulturists, fire sprinkler installations came together on August 24, 2019 to present a wide range of garden ideas and information to around 150 people.

The following day, August 25, over 100 people visited 8 open gardens in Tathra and Thompson’s. Some gardens had been rebuilt since the fire and were now being enjoyed by their owners, some were very steep and others were to just be enjoyed and to learn from. A big thanks to the participants!

“Inspiration and ideas, community engagement, support from neighbours, encouragement and enjoyment”, were some comments from garden owners and community members.

Organisers of the Garden Forum, Pip Marshman & Chris Hamilton


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Bega Rotary, Landcare, Tathra Lions on the BBQ, a number of stalls by local business and community groups, Yates product donations, help from the Tathra Recovery Centre with printing and advertising, and the MC Ian Campbell from About Regional, were invaluable during the event organising, advertising and on the day.

The weekend was a resounding success, offering advice and information, inspiring and enabling many home owners and those affected by the fires to Get Gardening.


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CS 3 Key learnings from a Community perspective

“We are on a journey together, the main thing is to not leave anyone behind.” — Captain Stuart Haynes at the Church service for the twelve-month anniversary of the Tathra & District Fire.


Community The following themes were identified as being important for Tathra’s recovery as a community –

• Working together as a Community – the resources, skills and knowledge in your community can amaze you. Different people will have energy at different times.

• Take care of each other – support others, do no harm, everyone is hurting – even those that did not lose a house / business.

• Reach out – seek out or accept help as it is offered. This can come from many different areas in many different ways. Don’t be afraid to say, “I need help.”

• This will be a long-term thing – everybody’s journey will be different.

• Getting businesses back on their feet – attracting tourists back to Tathra. Social media – immediate engagement. How do you engage with customers?

• Management of donations requires consideration and thought – it can be humbling, greatly appreciated and challenging.

• Rebuilding takes time. Don’t rush. Insurance assessment is important and can take months. Individual BAL rating assessments take time, along with building approvals. Rebuilding will cost more than you expect. Less than 10% of houses in Tathra have been rebuilt 18 months after the fire.

• A community recovery centre to provide personal case managed support to all those impacted was vital to Tathra’s recovery


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APPENDICES

Appendix A — Tathra: Demographics, Population, Size

The most recent Census figures (2016) indicates that Tathra’s population is at 1,675 people; with the median age being 52 years. The two highest age brackets are the 60-64 year old (175 persons); and the 65-69 year old (138 persons).

Privately occupied dwellings totalled 702; privately unoccupied dwellings totalled 181 indicating the large number of holiday rental properties within this small seaside village.

Of the 702 privately occupied dwellings; 303 were owned outright; 164 were owned with a mortgage; 210 were rented and 25 classified as ‘other’ or tenure not stated.

563 or 80% of privately occupied dwellings accessed the internet from a dwelling.


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Employment statistics are as follows —

Employed Full time 393

Employed Part time 254

Employed, away from work

55

Unemployed looking for work 22

Total Labour Force 725

The top five types of Industry of employment are as follows:-

Health Care and Social

Assistance

116

Accommodation & Food

Services

88

Education & Training 84

Retail 69

Construction 64


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Appendix B — Timeline of Bega Valley Fires and Resources Allocated

The Independent Review into the Bega Valley Fires of 18 March, 2018, as undertaken by Mick Keelty, (Order of Australia and Australian Police Medal) indicated that the first call to ‘000’ of the Tathra-Reedy Swamp Fire was at 12:28 p.m.

The following is a timeline of conditions and number of incidents logged for the Bega Valley on 18 March, 2018 —

12:28 Hours: First ‘000’ call Incidents 3

Incidents 3

Incidents 6

Incidents 12

Incidents 13

Incidents 18

Incidents 20

Incidents 21

Incidents 21

1200 hours

1230 hours

1300 hours

1330 hours

1400 hours

1430 hours

1500 hours

1530 hours

1900 hours

37.1°C 36.9°C 37.0°C 37.5°C 38.4°C 37.0°C 38.4°C 36.8°C 29.0°C 18%

humidity

18% humidit

y

17% humidit

y

18% humidit

y

17% humidit

y

17% humidit

y

15% humidit

y

18% humidit

y

23% humidit

y Wind NW

32 km/h

Wind NW

44 km/h

Wind NW

44 km/h

Wind WNW

32 km/h

Wind WNW

24 km/h

Wind NW

41 km/h

Wind WNW

30 km/h

Wind WNW

41 km/h

Wind W 17 km/h

Gusts 50 km/h

Gusts 72 km/h

Gusts 72 km/h

Gusts 54 km/h

Gusts 48 km/h

Gusts 65 km/h

Gusts 57 km/h

Gusts 59 km/h

Gusts 32 km/h

The Timeline of Resources from the Independent Review indicated that resources deployed on 18 March, 2018 escalated as follows —

Time – 18 March, 2018

Number of resources

Type of resource

Between 1200 midday and 1230 pm

4 2 x RFS heavy units

2 RFS light units

7.00 p.m. 71 15 RFS heavy units; 19 RFS light units, 8 RFS group captains, 6 RFS aviation assets, 6 FRNSW appliances

3 NPWS light units, 6 FCNSW light units, 1 FCNSW heavy units and 1 FCNSW heavy plant

RFS = Rural Fire Service NSW; NPWS = National Parks & Wildlife Service NSW; FCNSW = Forestry Corporation of New South Wales

Appendix C — Report References

• Tathra It’s in our Nature – Town Guide & Map

• Sapphire Coast Destination Management Plan Information Sheet May 2018

• Sapphire Coast Marketing Accommodation Audit 2016

• Tathra Tourism Recovery Response Marketing Action Plan, Threesides Marketing, 22 March 2018

• Bureau of Meteorology Website

• Bega Valley Shire Council General Manager, Leanne Barnes

• Bega Valley Shire Council Mayor, Kristy McBain

• Bega Valley Shire Council Website

• Bega Valley Shire Council Tathra & District Support Service

• Bega Valley Shire Council Newsletters

• Bega Valley Shire Council Waste Management Coordinator

• Merimbula News Weekly Special Feature Edition, Wednesday June 20, 2018

• Merimbula News Weekly, Tathra : 12 months on 27 March, 2019

• Australian Women’s Weekly, Christmas Edition 2018

• Tathra-Sapphire Coast Tourism Resilience Project Deed of Agreement

• Insurance Council of Australia Media Release 21 March, 2018

• Emergency Management Fact Sheet for Tourism Operators in the Bega Valley

• Rural Fire Service

• Team Rubicon, Jed Lindley, Team Rubicon Australia

• Book Love for Tathra – Melissa Pouliot, Author

• Tathra Firebirds – Amanda Galvin Myers

• Community Led Recovery Workshop – Steve Pascoe, Jane Laverty & Michael Sperling

• Lions Club Newsletter

• Chris Hamilton, Tathra Garden Forum

• https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/news/tathra-tackles-fire-tragedy-head

• https://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/5490952/post-office-is-the-hub-of-town/Bega Valley Fires Independent Review, June 2018

• Interviews – 21 businesses in Tathra and Kalaru

• Interview – Pat Campbell, Tathra Community Reference Group & Lions Club

• Interview – Scott Meaker, Tathra Community Reference Group & Surf Club

• Interview – Lisa Freedman, Principal, Tathra Public School

• Organisation Comment – Carmen Risby, Tathra Chamber of Commerce

• Organisation Comment – Leanne Barnes, Bega Valley Shire Council

• Organisation Comment – Anthony Osborne, Sapphire Coast Destination Marketing

• Organisation Comment – Linda Mayo, Red Cross

• Organisation Comment – Martin Webster, Rural Fire Service

• David Younger Podcast leading up to Anniversary of Tathra Fire Event.

• David Beirman Report: The Development of Destination Resilience and Tourism Recovery: Tathra responds to the bushfire of March 2018

• Community Meetings: Digital recordings by Ian Campbell

• RFS Media Release re Tathra Fire event dated 21 March, 2018

• Tathra Community Reference Group Welfare Committee ‘What’s on in Tathra & District March 2019’

• Visit Tathra Website – www.visittathra.com.au

• 2016 Census Website

• Secretary, Bermagui Surf Club

• Register.Find.Unite Website

• Lifeline Website

• The Australian Journal of Emergency Management, November 2004

• https://www.mtwilson.com.au/mt-wilson-mt-irvine-rural-fire-brigade/bushfire-information-for-residents/total-fire-bans-and-fire-danger-ratingsh

https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/news/tathra-tackles-fire-tragedy-head

https://www.begadistrictnews.com.au/story/5490952/post-office-is-the-hub-of-town/

http://www.visittathra.com.au/

https://www.mtwilson.com.au/mt-wilson-mt-irvine-rural-fire-brigade/bushfire-information-for-residents/total-fire-bans-and-fire-danger-ratings

https://www.mtwilson.com.au/mt-wilson-mt-irvine-rural-fire-brigade/bushfire-information-for-residents/total-fire-bans-and-fire-danger-ratings