Communities

The Fire to Flourish program works in deep partnership with vibrant communities from four local government areas (LGAs) across New South Wales and Victoria. These Partner Communities – in Tenterfield, Clarence Valley, Eurobodalla and East Gippsland – are rich in natural beauty, diverse landscapes, Indigenous culture and a sense of community.

Working with our Partner Communities, we co-create strong local foundations for a thriving future, while strengthening resilience to disaster and disrupting cycles of entrenched disadvantage. Within each community, we collaborate to bring our innovations, research and impact to life in ways that are meaningful to local people and places.

What does community-led resilience really look like?

We walk alongside communities: exploring, analysing, co-designing and creating new community-led solutions that strengthen disaster resilience on their own terms, while always learning and adapting as we go.

Each Partner Community has a Fire to Flourish Community Team, comprising community members, leaders and Indigenous Elders, who work together and across the wider region to develop and implement community resilience priorities and projects.

How were the Fire to Flourish partner communities chosen?

LGAs across Australia were shortlisted after the 2019/20 bushfires, taking into account burnt area, properties destroyed and social-economic disadvantage. Fire to Flourish also shortlisted LGAs that had an Aboriginal population higher than the national average of 3.2 per cent. Using these criteria, three LGAs in New South Wales and one in Victoria were selected, providing a diversity of Countries, cultures, geographical regions and core economies.