• Charles Sturt University is committed to supporting strong, connected, resilient and vibrant communities
• The collaboration with Resilience NSW was established as an immediate response to the 2021 Mid North Coast flooding crisis, and followed earlier collaboration for the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires relief
• The University continues to collaboratively facilitate learning to build capacity in the community to prepare for any future disruptions

Charles Sturt University and Resilience NSW are celebrating their collaboration that enabled the delivery of essential flood relief to the extended Mid North Coast community since April, 2021.

Charles Sturt Director of External Engagement (Port Macquarie) Ms Kate Wood-Foye said the University is committed to supporting strong, connected, resilient and vibrant communities.

“We are delighted to be able to contribute and do what we can to support agencies such as the Resilience NSW team that are working to strengthen and rebuild our communities after successive natural disasters,” Ms Wood-Foye said.

The University has hosted a team of 15 field officers from Resilience NSW in its Munster Street Port Macquarie CBD premises since April, shortly after the onset of the March 2021 flood crisis, until Friday 13 August.

“Hosting Resilience NSW as our guests during this time is part of our ongoing collaborative disaster response,” Ms Wood-Foye said.

“Port Macquarie is an ideal location – the perfect midway point ─ for the Resilience NSW team to use as a base to complete their field work up and down the coast, as they service from Taree in the south to Nambucca in the north.”

The central and refurbished CBD Muster Street campus features a large lecture space, which is ordinarily used for exercise sports sciences and some biomedical science classes, transformed into a large temporary office.

It includes a secure lecture room with IVT access for ZOOM meetings, with secure storage for private documents of clients who were affected by floods.

“We were able to allocate a private consultation room to Resilience NSW for one-to-one consultations if they were not able to visit families in the field,” Ms Wood Foye said.

Senior Project Officer, Resilience NSW Linda Thomas said while they were hosted by Charles Sturt University, Resilience NSW administered 700 applications for assistance and have provided 250 households with more than $2 million in funding to help replace lost essential household items and commence structural repairs to residences.

“This site has been invaluable and, as a student myself of Charles Sturt University, I am so proud that my university is involved in the journey of recovery for the community in partnership with Resilience NSW,” she said.

“Having this space has provided a safe, user-friendly environment for our team to come together and complete our work across the Nambucca Valley, Kempsey, Hastings-Port Macquarie, and Mid Coast local government areas.”

Ms Wood-Foye explained that the collaboration with Resilience NSW was established as an immediate response to the flooding crisis as a result of direct organisational relationships formed across a series of disasters impacting the region, notably the 2020-21 bushfire emergency.

“Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie had been working closely with emergency and recovery services dating back to the ‘Black Summer’ bushfire response,” she said.

Ms Wood-Foye said the Port Macquarie campus team and local and state Resilience NSW teams connected shortly after the peak of the floods, and in the weeks to follow, to identify opportunities to assist.

She said the timing of the flood crisis during the on-campus lecture session meant that student facilities were not available able to be converted into a community evacuation space for flood-impacted families.

 “We are incredibly grateful to be able to stand side-by-side with our amazing community who have been there each step of the way with us,” Ms Wood-Foye said.

“Together we continue to work with our university team, local government partners and agencies to make a difference in our incredibly resilient community as we move towards recovery.”