Building Resilience in the North Burnett project aimed to build and enhance the natural disaster resilience of agricultural North Burnett regional communities.  A skilled and experienced agricultural Community Resilience Officer (CRO) assisted agri-businesses to examine their operations and determine ways to mitigate the impact of natural disasters/flooding events.

This project was jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments under the Natural Disaster Resilience Program (NDRP). This funding was very timely for the region following seven declared natural flooding disasters and two drought declarations in the past eight years.

The CROs first role was to project a ‘Situation Analysis Report’ to describe the state of the local agricultural community at the outset of the project including the types of losses suffered as a result of natural disasters such as damaged infrastructure, loss of vegetation and soil degradation.  The analysis established that this project would focus on providing education opportunities and proactive on-ground solutions to assist producers to stabilise and strengthen their agricultural businesses.

The next step was to collected data from as many stakeholders as possible.  Stakeholders included local landholders, community groups, agricultural industry representatives, financial professionals and local government.  The findings formed the basis of comprehensive Needs Analysis that identified gaps in local knowledge and services as well as providing guidance as to the type of engagement required by landholders to increase resilience an mitigate against future risks.

The data collected revealed that producers needs fell into all three segments of the triple bottom line approach – Economic, Environmental and Social.  However, the greatest needs identified were in regard to Economic and Environmental security and sustainability.  This data formed the basis of the needs analysis that identified gaps in local knowledge and services as well as providing guidance as to the type of engagement required by landholders to increase resilience and mitigate against future risks.

A large majority of the project duration was dedicated to the actual facilitating of various events, be they educational, consultative, relationship building or developing strategic partnerships.  From January 2019 until the completion of the project, the CRO was able to develop a schedule of events and consultations that would best meet the needs identified.  The schedule had to take weather conditions into account and remain flexible in order to maximise participation and cater for consultants’ schedules.  At all times the CRO was mindful that all participants throughout the program were unique and consideration was given to factors such as different styles of learning, varying levels of business and agricultural experience and diverse attitudes to change.

Consideration was also given to the physical location where events were hosted to ensure that participants across the North Burnett were given opportunities to attend events within their local area covering topics relevant to their specific agricultural subindustry.  Information in the needs analysis allowed for funding to be allocated based on accurate needs across the region.

Unfortunately, completion of the project was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and associated restrictions imposed.  None-the-less, progress continued as soon as restrictions eased sufficiently to allow events to continue.

The final activity associated with “Building Resilience in the Agricultural North Burnett” is the production of a final report.  Feedback received throughout the program has been included along with key findings and assessment of the success of the project.