Emergency management

Crown land managers must be prepared for emergencies on Crown reserves. Having a plan for emergency management can help reduce the effect of an emergency, saving lives and property.

The following information for Crown land managers provides guidelines, responsibilities and obligations for preparing for and managing emergencies. It also advises on help that may be available to reserves that have been affected.

An emergency is an event, actual or imminent, which endangers or threatens to endanger life, property or the environment, and that requires a significant and coordinated response.

Such events could be any of the following:

• natural disaster – flood, fire, earthquake, tidal surge, storm
• other flood or fire events
• biological hazard
• bomb threat
• chemical spill
• explosion
• certain types of vandalism
• building fire
• gas leak
• lift emergency
• medical emergency
• motor vehicle accident
• power failure
• radiation hazard
• violent or threatening person
• suspicious packages or mail.

If you are prepared, you can prevent many emergency situations, or reduce their effect. For example, fulfilling fire safety obligations reduces the chance of a grandstand being destroyed by fire.

Some emergencies such as earthquakes or floods cannot be avoided. However, even in these cases, you can reduce their effect by putting emergency management measures in place before the event happens.

Emergency risk management

It may be appropriate to do an emergency risk assessment similar to that detailed under risk management, using an Identify, Assess, Control and Monitor process. This will allow you to analyse the potential for emergency situations to happen within the reserve and the wider area surrounding it. It will also guide you on appropriate measures for reducing the risk of an emergency, and developing emergency procedures.

Developing emergency procedures

Developing and implementing emergency procedures before an emergency happens can minimise harm and disruption. It also ensures that all Crown land manager members, employees, contractors and volunteers are aware of their responsibilities if an emergency happens.

Plan of management

Where you have a plan of management in place, it can be another source of help in dealing with or avoiding emergencies. Plans of management should identify:

• relevant stakeholders
• issues affecting the Crown land manager
• its responses to those issues
• the management of emergency situations.

Crown land manager duties

Your main responsibilities in an emergency situation are to protect:

• Crown land manager members, employees, contractors, volunteers and visitors
• reserve property
• other landholdings and property bordering the reserve.

An emergency management checklist (like the list below) details the key duties for emergencies on the reserve. The aim of such a checklist is to ensure you are prepared. This includes:

• forming and implementing an emergency response plan
• making everyone aware of their roles and responsibilities
• maintaining up-to-date contact lists
• communicating potential dangers to users of reserve property.

You should update any emergency plan regularly – for example, each year – to ensure that it is:

• accurate – for example, emergency contacts are up to date
• reliable – for example, it describes land and buildings accurately
• practical – for example, it clearly defines roles and responsibilities during an emergency.

Signage detailing emergency procedures may be appropriate at the entrance to some reserves. Signs should include the relevant information from the emergency management plan and should be practical and suitable for the reserve type.

Before an emergency

• Develop an emergency management plan or checklist.
• Agree on the responsibilities of Crown land manager members, employees, contractors and volunteers.
• Maintain emergency equipment so it is fit for use.
• Store important documents off-site, or in a fire or waterproof container.
• Locate where and how to turn off electricity, gas and water.
• Maintain contact lists of key local resources such as Crown land manager members, the Rural Fire Service, local police and local council.
• Train all Crown land manager members and employees in emergency procedures.
• Provide all contractors and volunteers with information on your emergency management procedures.

During an emergency

• Phone emergency services on 000.
• Contact the chairperson of the Crown land manager. The chairperson or general manager has ultimate responsibility for managing the situation and will need to be prepared to deal with emergency services personnel, the general community, and the media.
• Liaise with other relevant response agencies such as the Rural Fire Service and the State Emergency Service.
• Contact other Crown land manager members, employees, contractors and volunteers.
• Confirm the location of any visitors on reserve.
• Secure the location of the emergency.
• Implement the emergency management plan or checklist.
• Implement evacuation procedures where needed.

After an emergency

• Contact the Department for help with disaster recovery, including insurance arrangements. The Department also gives help in dealing with media enquiries.
• Do a debrief. What did we learn, do well, or do badly?
• Implement feedback from the debrief.

For more guidance on how to develop a detailed emergency plan, visit the business.gov.au.

Emergency service agencies may need to use Crown reserves, such as showgrounds, for operational activities. This could include using Crown reserves as staging and evacuation areas, as well as locations for disaster recovery efforts. During these events, the Department or other Government agencies may direct you to provide access to reserves you manage.

Crown land managers can claim the costs of setting up an evacuation centre or assembly area if:

• the event has been declared a natural disaster by the NSW Government, and
• a NSW Government agency has asked you to set up an evacuation centre or assembly area on the reserve.

Eligible expenditure can be claimed as outlined in the NSW Disaster Assistance Guidelines. This includes:

• land, air or water transport organised by response or recovery agencies
• provision of essential goods or services to stranded individuals, including essential medical personnel and technicians, equipment such as generators and pumps, and other goods such as food, water, groceries, shelter, fuel
• setting up, operating and decommissioning assembly areas and/or evacuation centres including lighting, food, water, toilets, temporary shelter, bedding, office and communication equipment.

If you open an evacuation centre or assembly area voluntarily without any direction from the lead agency, you will not receive reimbursement for costs.

The Department gives Crown land managers support to help with disaster recovery. In the first instance, contact us.

The Department will help eligible Crown land managers with insurance claims from the NSW Government’s Treasury Managed Fund. For more information about insurance coverage and the claim process, visit Insurance.

Other funding options from the Department may be available to help with recovery efforts if insurance will not cover repair costs. Other types of non-financial support may also be available to you, depending on your specific needs or the circumstances of the disaster.

General information for the broader community on disaster help is available at Recovering from a natural disaster.

After an emergency, doing a debrief can be valuable. This will help to identify what was done well and what could have been done better. Ideally, this should take place as soon as possible after the emergency. The most appropriate person to organise the debrief is the one responsible for formulating and implementing the emergency management plan, or the Crown land manager chairperson.

You can use the following principles to guide the debrief and review process:

Include internal and external stakeholders

These could be Crown land manager members, volunteers, employees, other members of the community who were involved, local council staff, and departmental officers.

Understand the context

Consider what happened, date and time, general background to the emergency.

Agree on the objective

Record actions taken, recognising positive ones, and learning from the event.

Describe the situation

Describe the situation in some detail, for example:

• When was it first noticed there was a problem?
• Who noticed it?
• Whom did they alert and when?
• Who was involved in the situation?
• What was the effect? For example, these could be injuries, damage to/loss of property, and cost.
• How will recovery of any losses take place? Who is responsible?
• What would you do differently next time?
• What was done well?
• What can you do to prevent something similar in the future?
• What could you do to reduce the effects of something similar?
• What other emergency situations could arise that we should prepare for?

Document the results

Gather the information and feed it back to the people involved in the process. You should also use this documentation to update the future process for managing such situations.