Hobart’s resilience recognised in national award

Published on 07 December 2020

A program implemented to help Hobart’s community recover from the May 2018 flood event has taken out a national Resilience Australia Award.

The City of Hobart has been awarded the 2020 Resilient Australia National Local Government Award for its suite of May 2018 flood projects, collectively known as ‘Resilient Hobart’.

Among the projects implemented include the Stories of Resilience podcast series, photo gallery and short film; Rain Coming public artwork adjacent to the rivulet at South Hobart; the family-based community art project Afloat; and a pilot project that established community-based working groups to assess their respective suburbs’ resilience.

The award was presented on Friday at the National Museum in Canberra by Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud.

In the award citation, the project was described as “five distinct initiatives that responded to the recovery and resilience needs of impacted individuals, community groups and the broader community.

“The project provided an opportunity to hear and learn from experiences, equip community leaders with tools and skills to be able to support their communities now and into the future, and acknowledge the resilience of the people directly and indirectly impacted by this extreme weather event.”

More information on the Resilient Hobart program, including a link to the Stories of Resilience podcasts, can be found at hobartcity.com.au/ResilientHobart. 

Resilient Hobart was jointly funded by the Australian and Tasmanian governments under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements.