Places of Refuge - Building Resilience

Abstract

The development of places of refuge for remote locations such as Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria is critical infrastructure. The island is threatened by tropical cyclones several times each storm season which has financial, safety and health impacts for those living and working on the island. As the island does not have a cyclone shelter, many people on Mornington Island feel distressed during cyclone season due to the lack of safe locations to shelter in. Most of the Council owned buildings are either legacy buildings from missionary days, dating back to the early and mid 1900s, or demountable buildings in service long past their use by date, due to competing Council services and the high cost of building and transporting materials and buildings to the island. State and Federal government supply housing for the local community, however the Council is required to access funds in many cases via competitive grant funding rounds to deliver services above and beyond the level of service of most mainland Councils, with virtually no rate base. Many Councils seek to fill the voids for their community where social or commercial enterprise are unwilling or unable to provide necessary goods or services, however the voids on Mornington Island are all consuming with a non-existent commercial sector and a fragmented social sector. The purpose of the project was to build resilience on Mornington Island to allow a critical workforce to be able to stay on island during seasonal weather events and avoid the extreme financial burden to Council of evacuating people. Over 95% of the buildings assessed were found to be unsafe for even minor season weather events, which revealed the true risk Council was facing each season if people were not evacuated. Peak Services in collaboration with Bligh Tanner delivered a total of eighteen buildings accommodating 45 people as well as the tavern have been upgraded and tied down to meet the regulatory cyclonic requirements for the region.