What happens when a bushfire warning means nothing to you - and the West Vic program changing that

People who grew up in Australia are used to the rhythms of emergency warnings - total fire ban days, flood alerts, heatwave advice. But for many new arrivals, those messages can be confusing, unfamiliar or missed entirely.

That gap is now driving calls to expand a Bendigo-based program designed to help migrant-and-former refugee communities better understand how to stay safe as extreme weather events become more frequent.

What’s happening? Bendigo Community Health Services is pushing for its Emergency Preparedness Program to be embedded across Victoria, after five years of local success.

• The program, delivered in partnership with the Country Fire Authority, the State Emergency Service and the City of Greater Bendigo, provides in-language education on how to prepare for and respond to fires, floods and heatwaves.

Why it matters: As climate change drives more intense and frequent extreme weather events in western Victoria, people who don’t fully understand emergency messaging can face heightened risks.

• “For new arrivals, the new environment and the weather in Australia may be very different to where they come from,” program facilitator Nido Taveesupmai said.

• “There’s often a lack of information in their language and all the messages are designed for mainstream audiences.”

Different worlds: Kaye Graves, a senior leader at BCHS’ migrant and refugee cultural diversity team, told the Brolga many people arriving from countries like Afghanistan and Burma were navigating not just a new climate, but an entirely different way of living.

Owning or renting a house, using transport, or understanding emergency services can all be unfamiliar, let alone how Australian bushfires or floods behave.

🗣️“Fire, flood and heat behave very differently here,” said Graves. “Where they come from, no one has ever asked how they can help them. So if there's an earthquake, a landslide or a bomb, you just have to help yourself.”

Breaking barriers: The program tackles those challenges head-on, with translated fact sheets, 21 in-language videos and face-to-face sessions delivered through trusted community networks.

• More than 2,300 people from refugee backgrounds have attended training sessions, while resources have been distributed more than 8,000 times.

• The training sessions are offered in the Karen, Dinka and Dari languages.

• Community “champions” are also trained each year to share knowledge within their own networks.

“Because we involve the community in all the planning and the development of resources in the program, there's trust, and we know that the model is culturally safe and easily understood,” Graves said.

• That trust is particularly critical for people who may have experienced trauma involving authority figures or uniforms before arriving in Australia.

Real-world impact: Participants are learning how to prepare their homes, use the VicEmergency app, avoid driving through floodwaters and recognise the dangers of extreme heat.

“We’ve seen lots of uptake of knowledge and examples of using that knowledge,” Graves said.

What’s next: With refugee communities spread across regional Victoria, including parts of western Victoria such as Nhill and Horsham, there are growing calls to expand the model.

• “We share the learnings because we want people to understand the importance of a tailored, targeted approach to being safe with these severe weather events,” Graves said. “It’s a human right to be understood and to understand.”