The Northern Rivers Community Resilience Alliance was established in November 2023.

 

Its roots lie in a run of compounding disasters: the 2017 floods, the 2019–20 bushfires, and the catastrophic floods and landslides of 2022. In each, local community organisers played a vital role in response, recovery and adaptation. Research in the years that followed found that these grassroots groups wanted stronger connections with each other for peer-to-peer support. That showed the need for regional collaboration in disaster resilience.

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Since early 2024, 60 community-led groups and organisations across the Northern Rivers have joined the Resilience Alliance. It supports independent, place-based resilience groups to develop their own local approaches to risk reduction, preparedness and recovery, for fire, flood and whatever comes next. That work is guided by community knowledge, lived experience and shared learning.

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The Resilience Alliance has grown from a single part-time coordinator into a regional team of six, reaching every local government area in the Northern Rivers.

 

Its work includes:

• Connected and Prepared. Funded by the Australian Government through the Disaster Ready Fund, this project gives groups governance and capacity-building support, shared digital tools and peer learning.

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• Resourcing Community Resilience. Supported by the NRMA Help Fund, in partnership with the Northern Rivers Community Foundation and Monash University’s Fire to Flourish initiative, this project lets groups decide collectively, through participatory grantmaking, where resources go.

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• Monitor, Evaluation and Learning. Embedded researchers from the University Centre for Rural Health help the Resilience Alliance listen, reflect and adapt as it grows, through its MEAL approach and annual Health Checks.

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Through regular gatherings, deep conversations and shared experiences, the Resilience Alliance is building a community-led network focused on collective care, preparedness and regional strength.