This district risk assessment report summarises the results of the State Risk Project risk assessment workshops in the Kimberley Emergency Management (EM) district. It covers five priority hazards, as identified by the Kimberley District Emergency Management Committee (DEMC). The workshop series was conducted between July and September 2015.
The results for the five hazards assessed reveal that:
- 3% of the risks were assessed as extreme;- 37% of the risks were assessed as high;- 7% of the risks could cause catastrophic consequences.
- 3% of the risks were assessed as extreme;
- 37% of the risks were assessed as high;
Human epidemic presents the most significant risks in the Kimberley as it has more extreme risks than any other assessed hazard (13%). The limited capacity of the health system and the remote nature of the district are expected to limit its ability to cope with an epidemic. The isolated nature of communities in the Kimberley could also allow time for the disease to spread before being detected. The majortity (72%) of cyclone risks statements were assesed as high. In particular, the risk to Broome was noted due to the concentration of government district offices in the town. The damage caused by a cyclone in Broome would have a large impact on government agencies' ability to provide services to the whole district and would require the relocation of agencies to other town-sites in the Kimberley.
The road transport network has been identified as vulnerable to a number of hazard impacts. The high cost of building ‘redundancies’ (back-ups such as bypasses) means that there is potential for significant economic losses during a disaster. These losses would stem from:
- damage to the physical road infrastructure- delays to industry- disruption to the supply of essential goods to communities- isolation of towns- interruption to the flow of tourism.
- damage to the physical road infrastructure
- delays to industry
- disruption to the supply of essential goods to communities
- isolation of towns
- interruption to the flow of tourism.
Full report downloadKimberley Emergency Management District Risk Assessment Report29 May 2017 PDF (7,692KB)