Sink or swim? Response, recovery and adaptation in communities impacted by the 2010/11 Australian floods

Abstract

The Queensland (northeast Australia) wet season and Victorian (southeast Australia) summer of 2010/11 were record-breaking periods. Based on climate models, the IPCC (2012) argues with medium confidence that anthropogenic influence has contributed to rainfall extremes. The research applied a mixed methods approach whereby different qualitative (face-to-face interviews, open response questions within questionnaires) and quantitative (closed questions within questionnaires) methods contributed to different aspects of the study. Many respondents (43%) were living in a singlestorey house (i.e. not raised on stumps or stilts), a single-storey duplex or a ground floor unit. As many Australian disasters occur during the summer when people are on holiday or absent from the community, a network of contacts would be extremely useful.