Published works

Between 2000 and 2015, 178 people died from floods in Australia.  Despite the strong messaging from emergency services, people continue to drive or walk through floodwater, putting their lives at risk. In response, the NSW State Emergency Service has developed a range of video stories depicting people’s decision making processes and experiences entering floodwater and activated them as part of a comprehensive social media campaign - thereby incorporating a modern day approach to engage with the community about the dangers of entering floodwater.  The videos present the real people recounting their decision to drive through floodwater, the consequences of their actions and the take home message.  Evidence from commissioned research and research from the Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre determined the themes of these stories.  The stories include: Sonya, a mother that crossed a flooded river due to peer pressure from her passengers; Peter, a farmer who nearly drowned after entering floodwater to rescue cattle; Tom, a young man that entered floodwater to impress girls in the car and Jaime, a mother who turned around for fear of putting the lives of her children at risk. During the 6 week campaign, the content was seen over 800,000 times, and videos were viewed more than 400,000 times. The campaign reached over 150,000 individual young men in NSW, and over half a million more people outside of the target group.  Engagement with the campaign was also high, with 28,000 people liking, sharing, or commenting. In 2016 the project was awarded the Government section of the NSW Resilient Australia Awards.