Flood Warning and Damages in Alice Springs: Part 1 Executive Summary. Part 2 Tangible Damages Part 3 Intangible Damages & Emergency Procedures
Handmer, John; Smith, D. I.; Greenaway, Mark
E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Report ; 53/1989
1989-04-01
Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT).
Date:1989-04
English
Power and Water Authority
Alice Springs
Report ; 53/1989
application/pdf.
Check within Publication or with content Publisher.
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/228902
https://hdl.handle.net/10070/673596
Technical Report WRA89053 Viewed at 03:02:00 on 18/02/2010 Page 72 of 139. I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I .i';borigina L community :?h.e brochure had not reached Aboriginal people or thei::organisations. Those consulted in Alice Springs and .3dditional specialists felt that Aboriginals would not "ave found the brochure useful in its present form. A cric~cal point is that English is the second language of ~any ~;boriginals. More graphics and fe~~er words, especiall:l less :echnical detail, ',.;ould help overcome this problem. A more general issue concerns the approach to information dissemination. It was pointed out that _'::"_borigines expect to obtain info.r"mation Vi.3 their ot'-lTl organisations. This relates to issues of language, cul:ure, familiarity and credibility (:iandmer and Ord, 1986). :!1 addition, these organisations assist with evacuation, ;;elfare and other aspects ,)f emergency manageme!1t during and after flooding. It would therefore be necessary to work '.-lith Aboriginal organisations to increase the likelihood that the information would assist those at risk. Gove,rnment bodies Representatives of organisations involved in flood hazard management were asked to comment on the bl:'ochure. These l:1cluded people who had drawn up the document. While there was gene~al e!1dorsement of the concept of the brochure, considerable skepticism exists over its effecti v'eness. Apart from ;:he pcoblem of people treat ing the brochure as junk mail, 'T,,~hich was mentioned by seve:::-al interviewees, a number of specific problems we~e raised. 'These included!. - difficulties in using the map during the flood, and finding that it did not help locate safe access. - one member of the disaster committee found the map confusing. - too complicated. - difficulties relating to probabilities, it would be better to show the 1983 and 1988 flood lines. It is important to stress that despite these criticisms, interviewees were very pleased that the brochure had been produced. Literature on public information, and additional specialists 'The literature on public information is fairly depressing reading. It is very difficult to demonstrate tnat programs have been success ful (Handmer and Penning-Ro~lse.ll, 1989;