Australia S Natural Disasters

Disasters in Australia and New Zealand brings together a collection of essays on the history of disasters in both countries. Leading experts provide a timely interrogation of long-held assumptions about the impacts of bushfires, floods, cyclones and earthquakes, exploring the blurred line between nature and culture, asking what are the anthropogenic causes of ‘natural’ disasters? How have disasters been remembered or forgotten? And how have societies over generations responded to or understood disaster? As climate change escalates disaster risk in Australia, New Zealand and around the world, these questions have assumed greater urgency. This unique collection poses a challenge to learn from past experiences and to implement behavioural and policy change. Rich in oral history and archival research, Disasters in Australia and New Zealand offers practical and illuminating insights that will appeal to historians and disaster scholars across multiple disciplines.

Disasters have always occurred in Australia, even before European settlement began in 1788. Such is the geography and climate of the 'Great South Land' that disasters such as bushfires, cyclones, storms, floods, drought and heat waves are natural phenomena. They also tend to be seasonal and can be successive; bushfires follow periods of drought ...

From the agonies of droughts and floods to the shocks of earthquakes and bush fires, Australia is a country famed as much for its ferocious natural hazards as for its rich environment. Australia's Natural Disasters is a fascinating chronicle of the ferocity of nature and the dramatic effects it has had on this country and its people from the mid-1800s to the seemingly more frequent extreme-weather events of the 2000s. Disasters covered include the bushfires of 2019 and 2020, Cyclone Yasi and Cyclone Tracy, The Black Saturday 2009 Bushfires and the devastation along with the Queensland Floods and the 2021 Floods, the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the mass rescue at Bondi Beach, Dust Storms of 2009 and the devastating hail storm that struck Sydney's East and much more.

Australia is currently facing several significant environmental issues. In Australia, the natural disasters that play an unpredictable part in all our lives are drought, fires, tropical cyclones, floods and, to a lesser extent, earthquakes. Each of these disasters affect us all, either directly or indirectly. Natural disasters explores the impact that these events have had on Australia. Features of this book include: informative and comprehensive text with photographs; labelled diagrams relevant to the text; fact boxes to highlight interesting information; and a resource list for further information.

This book explores policy, legal, and practice implications regarding the emerging field of disaster justice, using case studies of floods, bushfires, heatwaves, and earthquakes in Australia and Southern and South-east Asia. It reveals geographic locational and social disadvantage and structural inequities that lead to increased risk and vulnerability to disaster, and which impact ability to recover post-disaster. Written by multidisciplinary disaster researchers, the book addresses all stages of the disaster management cycle, demonstrating or recommending just approaches to preparation, response and recovery. It notably reveals how procedural, distributional and interactional aspects of justice enhance resilience, and offers a cutting edge analysis of disaster justice for managers, policy makers, researchers in justice, climate change or emergency management.

A textbook designed for students taking a course in natural hazards with an Australasian focus and context. In full colour and richly supported by photographs, illustrations and maps.

In recent times the frequency and severity of natural disasters has placed a clear emphasis on the ability of governments to plan, prepare and respond in an effective way. Disaster Management in Australia examines government coordination when faced with large scale crises, outlining the challenges in managing events such as the 2009 Victorian bushfires and 2011 Queensland floods. The public sector is equipped to deal with policy and service delivery in more routine environments, but crisis management often requires a wider government response where leadership, coordination, social capital, organisational culture and institutions are intertwined in the preparation, response and aftermath of large scale crises. As crises continue to increase in prevalence and severity, this book provides a tangible framework to conceptualise crisis management which can be utilised by researchers, emergency services and government officials alike. Disaster Management in Australia is an important contribution to the study of government coordination of crises and, as such, will be of considerable interest to students and scholars of disaster management, and to policy makers and practitioners looking to refine their approach.

From cyclones to sinking ships, from mine explosions to train crashes, faulty planes and bridge collapses, from the shooting in Port Arthur to the Bali bombing, from floods in the north to bushfires in the south, Australia has not been immune to the fickle finger of fate...No one expects cataclysmic events, but when disaster strikes, life changes in an instant: priorities shift, and often, life is reduced to blood, bone and memory...Historian Jonathan King has meticulously recounted the anatomy of twenty-three Australian disasters, showing us the events and conditions that conspired to their happening. More importantly, he draws out the stories of those Australians whose lives were irrevocably changed, and myriad stories of heroism and bravery...Many of the disasters in this book were caused by human error or negligence. Dreadful as they are, most have led to constructive outcomes, such as tighter gun controls in Australia in the aftermath of the Port Arthur shooting; stricter regulations for air, sea and rail transportation; and safer conditions for all workers...Humane and moving, Great Disasters in Australian History brings forth the everyday dimensions of a disaster to allow us to understand and empathise with the victims and survivors. The book is a small step to helping us remember how much things have changed - and how much we must remain vigilant so that we are not condemned to repeat past mistakes.