Incorporation of the Kangaroo Valley Community Bushfire Committee (KVCBC), to become Kangaroo Valley Community Association for Disaster Resilience, known as Resilient KV, is proceeding.

Last November, at the Neighbourhood Group Coordinators’ annual pre bushfire season meeting, members of the Kangaroo Valley Community Bushfire Committee floated the following ideas for the meeting’s consideration:

  • To broaden KVCBC’s focus beyond planning and preparation for, and response to, bushfire to planning and supporting community adaptation for a range of possible disruptive events.
  • For KVCBC to become an incorporated association. Membership would be open to all Kangaroo Valley community members. The functioning of this association could then benefit from a wider participation base, with people bringing a great range of skill, experience and knowledge to the table. As an association we will also be able to seek funding and insurance as required.
  • To adopt the name ‘Kangaroo Valley Community Association for Disaster Resilience’, to be known as ‘Resilient KV’, in order to reflect the broadening of our focus going forward.

The ideas were received with enthusiasm, with some Bushfire Ready Neighbourhood Groups already having broadened their own operations to a more general disaster or emergency focus. Some concerns were expressed about staying community-based and not becoming too ‘bureaucratic’.

Following that meeting the committee also sent out an email to the neighbourhood groups, via the coordinators, to explain the proposal and request feedback from the community. As a grassroots movement it was important that as many voices as possible were heard in considering these proposals.

Having taken on your suggestions, particularly that the proposed association keep a very strong, grassroots, community-based focus and that its objectives include planning and protection to protect our animal (companion, farm and native) and plant communities, we have proceeded with the incorporation process.

Our application has been submitted to the Office of Fair Trading and we are waiting on its approval. Once approval is received, we can plan for an inaugural AGM and seek membership from the community. We will advertise this widely, including through the Neighbourhood Groups, to enable as many people as possible to be involved.

Adaptation and resilience planning

KVCBC w as formed in late 2018, after a public meeting was held in the hall to discuss the increasingly dry conditions in the Valley and the threat of bushfire to our community. In the year that followed, before we were finally impacted by the Currowan fire in January 2020, KVCBC worked towards improving Kangaroo Valley’s preparedness for fire, including helping with the evolution of the Neighbourhood Groups.

In the ensuing nearly three years, as our community has dealt with bushfire recovery, Covid and the damaging effects of many rainfall events, KVCBC has continued to meet and explore ways in which our community can plan and adapt for a range of future disruptive events, including but definitely not limited to bushfire. 

During 2022 some members of KVCBC participated in the development of the Community Led Adaptation and Resilience Strategy for the Shoalhaven, a year-long process in conjunction with Griffith University, culminating in the production of a plan for the whole of Shoalhaven to increase our region’s readiness for and ability to recover from future disruptive events. 

Late last year an opportunity arose, led by the Kangaroo Valley Community Consultative Body, to work with Griffith University to begin to develop such a plan specifically for Kangaroo Valley. About a dozen community members, including members of KVCBC, participated in these planning sessions.

To address any possible confusion about this initiative, the group of community members that participated in these planning sessions were not themselves forming another ‘resilience’ committee, but rather taking up an opportunity to further our community’s thinking about future resilience and adaptation broadly, not just in the context of natural disasters. 

 At this stage Shoalhaven City Council is considering the whole of Shoalhaven plan and how it, and smaller community plans such as ours, might be further developed and implemented. We await news about this project.

Shoalhaven Bush Fire Risk Management Plan

We have all been impacted by the Black Summer Bushfires in 2020 in some way, and the recovery is a long journey that is still in progress. NSW Rural Fire Service are currently reviewing the Shoalhaven Bushfire Risk Management Plan. Hopefully some of you have had your say and contributed to future planning via the survey that was distributed throughout the Valley by various means during May. We await the outcome of this review.

If you would like to chat about the Resilient KV incorporation or any other resilience matters, read the proposed constitution or view the list of activities and projects undertaken by Resilient KV (formerly KVCBC) thus far, please contact Cathy Gorman on 0438 651 540 or email mikeg@bigpond.net.au or Simon Harrington (Chair of the current committee) on 0418 280 181 or email simon@perfectlatitude.com.au.

Cathy Gorman