University of Wollongong (UOW) historian Dr Scott McKinnon conceded this year has seen more than its fair share of disasters.
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"There were devastating bushfires from which thousands of people are still recovering, but the fires are easily forgotten during a deadly pandemic," he said.
Dr McKinnon has co-edited a new book which looks at the history of bushfires, floods, cyclones and earthquakes in Australia and New Zealand.
Disasters in Australia and New Zealand: Historical Approaches to Understanding Catastrophe (Palgrave MacMillan 2020), offers the first edited collection of scholarly research on disaster history in Australia and New Zealand.
Dr McKinnon, from UOW's School of Geography and Sustainable Communities, says the disasters we've faced in the past six months alone have prompted an interest in disaster histories as people look to the past to try and make sense of difficult times.
"We hope the book provides valuable information and encourages some serious conversations about how we confront the challenges of a changing environment," he said.
Dr McKinnon reckons climate change and housing growth in high-risk areas are among factors which can increase our vulnerability to disasters in Australia and New Zealand.
"We need to be thinking about major policy change to mitigate the impacts of future disasters, but after each bushfire, flood or cyclone, the political discussion moves on quickly to other matters," he said.
The book, co-edited by Dr Margaret Cook (University of the Sunshine Coast), is a collection of essays that were written after a workshop, co-convened by Dr McKinnon and Dr Cook, at the Australian Centre for Culture, Environment, Society and Space (ACCESS) in mid-2019.
Nine researchers from Australia and New Zealand attended the workshop and the resulting essays discuss floods, earthquakes, bushfires and cyclones.
The book covers Australia's deadliest disaster, Cyclone Mahina in 1899; as well as the 1989 Newcastle earthquake; the 2003 ACT firestorm; the 2009 Black Saturday fires; and the 2011 Queensland floods.
Themes include discussion of Indigenous understandings of fire and flood, migrant experiences of bushfire in Australia and the politics of prescribed burning.
The book was launched online on July 2 by leading environmental historian Emeritus Professor Tom Griffiths.
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
