Metro areas, including regional metro, are growing while rural areas are ageing and declining.
This doesn’t come as a surprise and we have known about this trend for quite some time now, but how do we deal with it?
Last week I was invited to attend the Emergency Management Conference at the Albert Park Pullman Hotel. I heard some great reviews of several of the presentations but I specifically attended the “Population decline and rapid growth areas - Impacts on emergency management” session.
I heard from a few presenters on their local approach and thoughts around the challenge. Everyone agreed it is not easy and that there is no short-term solution.
- Tim Wiebusch, Victoria SES
- Cr David Grimble, Horsham Rural City Council, former Mayor, 40 years CFA Captain and Group Officer
- Peter Taylor, CFA, Operations Manager Kerang
- Craig Brownlie, CFA, Operations Manager Fire and Emergency Management Structural Planning
Cr David Grimble mentioned he believes a whole of government approach is required; transport needs to be improved and the economy diversified so we can retain young people and entice more people to regional centres who bring new skills.
From an emergency management perspective, all presenters think part of the solution is in the amalgamation with other services, focusing on community preparedness and resilience.
Peter Taylor shared the North-West Region’s journey. He mentioned it is key to look at the service delivery model and how it has changed along the years. "We are still operation with the same number of brigades but the population is smaller" he said.
The North West action plan is with CFA’s Board for approval and includes:
- the introduction of appliances which requires less manpower
- the creation of a community hub to attract more people
- a plan to partner with other services
- use of technology to predict risk.
The conclusion was that unfortunately there is no one solution, no cookie cutter magic spell.
The Volunteer Recruitment and Retention Project which is part of the Fire Services Statement, is one of CFA's projects which will assist volunteer brigades with the required recruitment and retention skill set and resources to ensure their viability in the changing environment. In the coming months, I will be visiting districts and workshops are being organised in collaboration with the Regional Volunteer Sustainability Team to identify local recruitment and retention needs and capabilities.
We will be updating the image library with half the photo shoots already completed and a few more scheduled for the coming weeks. Statewide photos will be available via the CFA Digital Library in late September.