Case Studies

Background

The Blue Mountains is one of the most bushfire prone areas in the world, with about 70 per cent of the land area in the local government area, around 143,000 hectares, incorporated into National Park.

The 2019–20 bushfire season, known as Black Summer, was the worst in Australia’s history and saw a devastating loss of lives, property, and native fauna. Higher than average temperatures following several years of drought enabled devastating fires to burn across large areas of the country, including the Blue Mountains.

With bushfires burning throughout the traditionally busy holiday period, media reports were reporting significant loss in trade for tourism related businesses, with sharp falls in visitation compared to the same time last year. In turn these business operators were having to adjust levels of employment, the flow-on effects being a fall in wages and salaries and reduced consumption within the local economy.

Agricultural industries were also heavily impacted with loss of stock, orchards, and farm infrastructure with the recovery period likely to be many years.

Project Goals

The Blue Mountains City Council contacted REMPLAN early in 2020, while more than 18 major bushfires burned in the municipality, requiring an understanding of the economic impacts of the 2019-2020 bushfires on the local economy. The purpose was to quantify the impacts of the bushfires on the local economy and to support applications for funding assistance for local industries.

REMPLAN’s Involvement

Blue Mountains City Council has a long established and effective approach to disaster management. In response to the 2019-2020 bushfire crisis Blue Mountains City Council engaged in a robust program of community engagement and business outreach to ameliorate the impacts where possible, communicate assistance, as well as gauge the impact.

Utilising information from Blue Mountains City Council, survey responses from the Office of the Small Business Commissioner, the Australian Business Register and other government sources, REMPLAN prepared a detailed economic impact assessment caused by the bushfires on the local economy.

Incorporating a profile of the local community, economic drivers and an overview of the businesses within the municipality REMPLAN delivered a detailed report that not only quantified the impact on the local economy, but also offered analysis and recommendations on potential temporary workforce adjustments to assist with the recovery.

REMPLAN also prepared a framework for monitoring longer term impacts over the next two years. The framework incorporated a range of indicators that would be monitored at key points in time and indexed to enable comparison between indicators as well as the level of improvement over time.

Results

REMPLAN’s analysis indicated that the economic impact of the bushfires for the local economy equated to over half a billion dollars and a loss of more than 2,500 jobs. While this change is clearly negative for the local area, quantifying these impacts provided Council with an evidence base to seek funding assistance and ultimately support troubled businesses in their local area.