Volunteers support the Millgrove community to be disaster ready

Volunteers from the Australian Resilience Corps (The Corps) were deployed to one of the country’s most disaster-prone communities – Millgrove, Victoria – to help residents prepare for extreme fire risk next summer , following back-to-back wet seasons.

Established in 2021 by Minderoo Foundation and founding partner NRMA Insurance, The Corps is a national volunteer network that connects volunteers to communities like Millgrove that are at an economic disadvantage and at high risk of exposure to fire and or flood, with the goal of supporting residents by future proofing their surroundings to natural threats.

Volunteers worked with Connecting Communities Australia to undertake several tasks including clearing overgrowth, removing fuel loads around critical infrastructure, such as the bridge into Millgrove, as well as learning how to support communities with their resilience planning and hazard identification.

President of the Millgrove Residents Action Group (MRAG) Maureen Halit said the town is one of the most fire prone areas in Victoria, possibly Australia. “If we get the major fires, we are going to be in big trouble and we need to be prepared,” she said.

“Having these volunteers come into the community is a huge opportunity to lift our resilience and place us in a strong position if a fire or flood were to occur. People underestimate the dangers of this beautiful region –currently, we’re one bad season away from potential disaster.”

The muster events are part of a project to support the Millgrove community with lifting their resilience to natural hazards currently being undertaken by Minderoo Foundation, Millgrove Residents Action Group, ResilientCo and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience. Community members identified their priorities to lift resilience which range from undertaking preparedness activities to de-risking critical infrastructure and bringing the community closer together.

Areas around Victoria’s Yarra River were chosen for volunteers to assist with preparedness activities, due to the flood and fire risk to Millgrove.

Activities that were undertaken by volunteers through The Corps include:

Minderoo Foundation’s Resilient Communities Mission Lead Matthew Chesnais said that having an at-risk community like Millgrove develop their own resilience plan is a positive step forward in laying the groundwork to reach parity with Australia’s most resilient communities, but more work is needed on a national level to rally volunteers.

“We know around 78 per cent of companies have a volunteering program, providing over one million hours per year – much of this just isn’t being accessed. We need to tap into the over 860,000 hours per year that employees aren’t taking advantage of in order to make Australia more prepared and more resilient,” added Mr Chesnais.

The Corps is calling on all of the community across Australia – private citizens and businesses alike – to join the volunteer network and help reduce the harm caused by fire and floods before they happen.

Sign up to the Australian Resilience Corps today: www.resiliencecorps.org.au