2022—A BIG YEAR FOR INTERSTATE FLOOD ASSISTANCE

2022 saw AFAC’s National Resource Sharing Centre once again coordinating the movement of fire and emergency service personnel between states and territories to provide surge capacity for fire, flood, and severe weather events.

During significant emergency and disaster events, states and territories can request assistance through the AFAC’s National Resource Sharing Centre (NRSC). The NRSC then works at the direction of the AFAC Commissioners and Chief Officers Strategic Committee and in collaboration with the NRSC Resource Managers Group to identify national capability and support personnel to move to where they are needed most.

In January 2022, the NRSC coordinated the movement of large air tankers and a lead plane from NSW, as well as an Air Attack Supervisor from Victoria, to support fire suppression efforts in WA. In February, WA requested a full incident management team (IMT) to provide extra capacity when its domestic IMT capacity was fully deployed, and ongoing severe fire weather threatened communities. Thirty-four incident management specialists, together with a COVID Coordinator, were deployed from NSW Rural Fire Service, Fire and Rescue NSW, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, and NSW Forestry Corporation.

The range of hazards for which the NRSC can coordinate resource movements was demonstrated in February 2022, when Queensland requested swift water rescue crews to assist with flood rescue operations. This was soon followed by a request from NSW for swift water and flood rescue crews, storm damage operatives, and community liaison officers as well as a range of IMT personnel. Between March and June 2022, the NRSC was activated a further three times to support deployments of flood management personnel to NSW and Queensland.

In October 2022, the NRSC activated again to support flood operations, this time in NSW and Victoria. During this operation over 650 personnel were deployed from all states and territories across Australia as well as New Zealand, filling incident management, in-water and on-water rescue, storm crew, rapid damage assessment, jurisdiction liaison and deployment manager roles. Deployments continued into late November in Victoria and late December in NSW.

Below: Significant flood activity during 2022 saw the NRSC activate to assist across multiple jurisdictions.

This protracted flood coincided with the bushfire season in WA, the NT, and Queensland, meaning certain personnel became difficult to source, particularly in-water flood rescue personnel. With assistance from the National Emergency Management Agency, NSW arranged for 18 in-water flood rescue personnel from the Singapore Civil Defence Force to deploy for two weeks, stationed at Wagga Wagga and Parkes.

In December 2022, the NRSC activated again to support SA as flood waters moved through the River Murray from NSW and Victoria. Over 50 personnel deployed to SA in IMT and flood rescue roles.

Overall the NRSC supported the deployment of over 1,600 personnel in response to flooding events in 2022, demonstrating that national capacity to provide surge capacity for flood operations can be just as significant as it is for fire.

The NRSC thanks all fire and emergency service agencies and personnel who provided surge capacity across Australia in 2022.