2018 flood resilience projects

Who was involved: Children, families, and educators residing close to the South Hobart rivulet.

The City employed two local artists, Rosie McKeand and Leigh Tesch, to run several creative workshops with children, families and educators, using creative recovery and play as a means to help children deal with change, adversity and associated feelings. These workshops culminated in a community event, a year on from the May 2018 floods at the base of the rivulet, to connect families together, share stories and celebrate community resilience, as well as to support the ongoing process of community recovery and to deal with the impacts of climate change.

One of the outcomes of this project was the Afloat - Everything Changes booklet(PDF, 5MB), which documents the creative process and community day. The City of Hobart would like to thank everyone who participated and supported this project and for those who continue to build resilience and recovery in their communities.

For more information visit the Afloat - children and families community resilience art project page.

Who was involved: Community service providers and leaders residing in Hobart, Kingborough, Glenorchy, and Derwent Valley.

Two ‘Disaster Ready’ workshops and three ‘Communicating in Recovery’ workshops were facilitated by the Australian Red Cross for community service providers and community leaders in the areas most affected by the extreme weather event. The workshops assist community service providers with tools and awareness to prepare for and act in an emergency, and assist community leaders to communicate more effectively after an emergency has occurred.

For more information visit the Australian Red Cross workshops page.

Who was involved: Community members residing in Lenah Valley, New Town, Sandy Bay and South Hobart.

Community members were invited to form voluntary working groups to assess their respective suburb’s resilience using the Torrens Community Disaster Resilience Scorecard. The City of Hobart is learning about the process of bringing people together to explore resilience in the context of their community and the resulting impacts this can have on resilience-building efforts at the grassroots level.

For more information visit the Communities Assessing their Own Resilience - a pilot project page.

Who was involved: Community members residing in South Hobart.

A new permanent work of public art provides the basis for acknowledging the destructive nature of the natural world and its incredible force, as well as an opportunity to build community cohesion, connectivity and resilience.

For more information visit the Rain Coming - public artwork page.

Who was involved: Flood-affected community members residing in Hobart, Kingborough, Glenorchy, and Derwent Valley.

This creative project was an opportunity for flood-affected community members to have their stories recorded for posterity and to help others learn lessons from the experience. A podcast series, photo gallery, and a short film have been produced and are available for viewing on the Stories of Resilience website:

Stories of Resilience website

The Stories of Resilience project report(PDF, 910KB) describes the project methodology in more detail and provides a snapshot of key themes that emerged from an analysis of all the recorded stories.

For more information, and a short trailer, visit the Stories of Resilience project page.