Above: Ollera Creek Bridge, north of Townsville, fell into floodwater leaving communities throughout Far North Queensland without fresh produce for up to three weeks in Coles and Woolies supermarkets.
North Queensland has just experienced another catastrophic flooding event, marking the second “once-in-a-century” flood in just six years. Ingham and areas surrounding Townsville were inundated, leading to mass evacuations, significant infrastructure damage, and tragic loss of life. The Herbert River reached levels unseen since 1967, overwhelming communities and causing widespread devastation.
In February 2019, ‘The Yarn’ reported that Townsville, locally known as Brownsville due to its predominantly dry conditions, received one year’s rainfall over one week. Six years later, in the same month, the Townsville region experienced another flooding deluge of biblical proportions.
In the 2019 Yarn article ‘When it rains, it pours’, ICAN CEO Aaron Davis stated he wants to see more proactive measures within the financial counselling sector to address future natural disasters. “I’d like to see a specialist training program developed for disaster events because we know the areas of financial counselling required are specific yet quite complex,” said Mr Davis.
“Once financial counsellors become ‘disaster qualified’, they could be put on a state or national association register, to be ‘called-up’ for some time when a disaster event occurs,” said Mr Davis. A coordinated disaster response would ensure that people who have lost everything have the best options when making critical financial decisions.”
Louise Hayes, Coordinator of Disaster Recovery at Financial Counselling Australia (FCA), has both lived through a natural disaster and worked as a disaster financial counsellor, assisting residents impacted by flood, fire, and cyclone.
“I understand firsthand the importance of having disaster financial counselling specialists in our sector,” said Louise. “Whilst disaster financial counselling requires all the skills of a generalist financial counsellor, the deep and complex trauma experienced, along with the long recovery time for impacted residents and complex insurance/grant-related matters, requires an extended skill set to meet community needs.”
“The increasing frequency of natural disasters, particularly in Queensland, has resulted in the need for more financial counsellors to be disaster-ready,” said Louise. “FCA, in conjunction with the Financial Counselling Association of Queensland (FCAQ), are running two two-day disaster recovery training events to help upskill new financial counsellors and already skilled generalist financial counsellors. Our Brisbane and Cairns training events have proved immensely popular and are at capacity.”
“If you’re a financial counsellor who missed this professional development opportunity, there are some great training/resources available to assist disaster-impacted clients,” said Louise. “We would recommend financial counsellors assisting disaster-impacted clients utilise FCA’s disaster toolkit and LegalAid Queensland’s disaster resources/fact sheets.
“We’re pleased that FCA and FCAQ have recognised the importance of this specialised training as a necessary component for financial counselling in regions affected by natural disasters,” said Aaron. “I believe the next step is for the sector to develop a Disaster Financial Counselling strategy that supports already stretched Financial counselling services to effectively mobilise when these events occur. We know it’s not easy to just recruit another financial counsellor in regional Australia.”
“Our hearts go out to the residents of Townsville and Ingham affected by the recent flooding events,” said Aaron. “If you need financial counselling assistance or know someone who does, please call ICAN on 1800 369 878 or access some financial assistance information on the Queensland Government’s After Disaster web page.”