The 2009 “Black Saturday” Victorian Bushfires was one of the worst bushfires in Australian history, sweeping through 78 communities, claiming 173 lives and destroying more than 430,000 hectares of land and 2,000 properties. The Government and affected communities were faced with a large-scale rebuilding and recovery effort to restore the built environment and re-establish livelihoods. Our research team stepped in six months after the fires to conduct an extensive longitudinal case study of the recovery effort over five years. The study series used a Build Back Better lens to investigate recovery issues and critical recovery decisions made in short and medium-term recovery timeframes, and examined the longer-term outcomes as a result of these decisions.
Our study proposed BBB best-practice indicators to support the recovery process and plan for future disaster recovery efforts.
Publications
Mannakkara, S., Wilkinson, S. & Potangaroa, R. 2014. Build Back Better – Implementation in Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction. Disasters, 38 (2), 267-290.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2013. Build Back Better Principles for Post-Disaster Structural Improvements. Structural Survey, 31 (4), 314-327.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2012. Build Back Better Principles for Land-use Planning. Urban Design and Planning, 166 (5), 288-295.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2015. Supporting Post-Disaster Social Recovery to Build Back Better. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 6 (2), 126-139.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2012a. Build Back Better Principles for Economic Recovery: The Victorian Bushfires Case Study. Journal of Business Continuity and Emergency Planning, 6 (2), 164-173.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. (2016). Selecting an Institutional Mechanism for Building Back Better: Lessons from Victorian Bushfires Recovery. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 19, 273-279.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2013. Post-Disaster Legislation for Building Back Better. Construction Law Journal, 29 (8), 495-506.
Mannakkara, S. & Wilkinson, S. 2011. Build Back Better – Implementation in Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction. International Conference on Building Resilience. Kandalama, Sri Lanka: University of Salford.
Mannakkara, S. (2014). A Framework for Building Back Better During Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Recovery. Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (Disaster Management), University of Auckland.
