Boosting rural resilience

Australia’s 2026 summer season has been marked by fire and flood.

In Victoria, January saw flash-floodings tear through Lorne and Wye River, popular holiday destinations along Victoria’s picturesque Great Ocean Road. While residents across the Otway Ranges in nearby Gellibrand battled a bushfire that wiped out 17 homes.

At the same time, fires ravaged rural communities in the north of the state, from Walwa to Longwood, burning hundreds of hectares of farmland and bush.

Across the country, Australians, particularly those in regional and rural areas, are increasingly facing more intense and frequent disasters.

Our research has found rural residents were almost 12 times more likely to have experienced a disaster since 2018 compared with people living in Australia’s cities.

This disparity reflects the growing exposure of regional and remote communities to natural disasters and highlights the need for strategies that reflect this increased risk.

Preparing for disaster

When many of us think about disaster preparedness we often picture sandbags, evacuation plans, fire-fighting equipment and emergency kits.

But what happens psychologically before a disaster hits can be just as important as physical preparation.

Our approach to disaster readiness needs to focus as much on mental preparedness as it does on physical response.

Our study shows that psychological preparedness plays a critical role in how rural Australians respond and cope with natural disasters like floods, bushfires and droughts.

Drawing on survey data from over 300 participants across Australia, we found that people who felt more psychologically prepared were better equipped to manage the immediate impacts of disasters.

When we talk about psychological preparedness, it refers to a person’s capacity to anticipate a disaster, understand their emotional responses, and manage stress during and after the event.

Our analysis shows that this form of preparedness is important, particularly in rural communities where natural hazards are more frequent and support services are often limited.

Preparedness takes many forms

Some interesting patterns emerged in our data.

Men, older adults and people with prior disaster experience reported higher levels of psychological preparedness.

But there are other people who may be more vulnerable to distress when disasters occur including those living with existing mental health challenges.

We also found a strong relationship between physical and psychological preparedness.

People who had taken practical steps, like developing emergency plans or assembling emergency survival kits, consistently reported higher levels of psychological readiness as well.

It suggests that engaging in physical preparedness activities may help build confidence, a sense of control and mental readiness.

For rural communities in Australia, these findings are particularly significant.

Many of these rural and regional areas face higher disaster risks while having fewer mental health services available, both in regular circumstances and during emergencies.

Improving psychological preparedness before disasters hit could help to significantly reduce distress and prevent long-term impacts on wellbeing.

To assess psychological preparedness, we used the Awareness, Anticipation and Management (AAM) subscale from the Psychological Preparedness for Disaster Threat Scale.

It’s a measure that aims to capture a person’s perceived ability to recognise warning signs, anticipate emotional reactions and manage psychological responses in disaster situations.

Building on strengths

We are now working with community groups in Victoria’s Ovens Murray region to design a locally-led program that supports people to prepare for the psychological pressures during challenging seasons – like drought.

Our aim is to develop approaches that reflect community strengths and integrate with existing disaster preparedness initiatives.

Rather than treating mental and physical preparedness separately, our findings point to the value of integrating psychological preparedness into established disaster planning and response efforts.

As climate change increases the likelihood of more frequent natural disasters across Australia, these findings provide important insights for policymakers, service providers and communities.

Strengthening disaster resilience in regional and rural areas will require not only investment in physical infrastructure and emergency response – but sustained attention to the psychological preparedness of those most at risk.

This article was written by Robyn McNeil, Dr Tegan Podubinski and Dr Kristen Glenister of the University of Melbourne and published by Pursuit.