Pyke, Joanne ORCID: 0000-0002-0137-937X, Law, Alexandra ORCID: 0000-0002-1246-1301, DeLacy, Terry and Jiang, Min (2017) Building resilience to the economic and social impacts of bushfire in nature-based tourism communities in regional Victoria. Project Report. Victoria University, Melbourne. (Submitted)

Abstract

Funded by the Helen Macpherson Smith Trust, this project was conducted by Victoria University, Melbourne, to identify effective visitor communications for bushfire preparedness, response and recovery for small, regional, tourism-reliant communities in Victoria. The project is based on two case studies of small destinations that have been impacted by bushfires in recent years. The first case study is Harrietville - a small town in the Australian Alpine Region located on the Great Alpine Road between the regional centre of Bright and Mt Hotham, one of Victoria’s premier ski resorts. The town was severely impacted by ‘the Harrietville Fire’ that started in January 2013 and burned around the town over 55 days. The second case study is the 2015 ‘Wye River – Jamieson Track Fire’, that occurred in the Otway Ranges in December 2015. Starting on the 19th December, 2015, the fire broke containment lines on Christmas day, leading to the evacuation of Wye River and Separation Creek, two adjacent small coastal settlements on Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, between the townships of Lorne and Apollo Bay. Drawing on the experiences at both Harrietville and Wye River – Jamieson Track Fire, the project was conducted with the aim to assist small, regional and tourism-reliant communities as well as tourism product/service/experience providers and event organisers to enhance capabilities in visitor communication in relation to bushfire risk, emergency response, and post-fire conditions. Specifically, the aim was to identify good practice in relation to visitor communications for bushfire preparedness and recovery.

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