Hundred of volunteers, staff run mock evacuation Operation Home on the Range at Toowoomba Showgrounds

After the horror 2023 fire season, staff and volunteers at several evacuation centres in the Darling Downs were calling out for more training so they could better help their communities. Here is how the police and fire authorities responded.

Hundreds of local government staff, SES personnel, firefighters and police ran a mock evacuation centre at the Toowoomba Showground in preparation for the next natural disaster.

When a firestorm ripped through Tara last October, residents were given just a few hours’ notice.

Many left behind property, livestock, pets and priceless family heirlooms that were reduced to ash when fire destroyed an estimated 58 homes and structures.

It was a high stress environment compounded by the difficulties of managing what was one of the largest evacuations in recent years.

Eight months later, hundreds of staff from the Toowoomba, Lockyer Valley, Western Downs, Southern Downs, Somerset and Goondiwindi Regional Councils, along with Red Cross staff, police, firefighter and SES personnel gathered at the Toowoomba Showgrounds to learn how to better roll out and manage evacuation centres.

‘Operation Home on the Range’ used a major flood event scenario to practice the LGAs’ capabilities to respond to a mass evacuation scenario.

Darling Downs Inspection Jamie Deacon said the request for more training came from the rank and file council staff who run evacuation centres in their communities.

“We wanted to get consistency and improvement in terms of building that capability across all our local government areas,” he said.

“We want to make sure that all the people who work in the evacuation centres are well versed in how to run a centre, so they are better prepared and that the community benefits.”

Operation Home on the Range was designed to improve how evacuation centres are managed across the Darling Downs, South West and Lockyer Valley.

The scenario required attendees to set up an evacuation centre, complete with stretcher beds, checking in of mock evacuees, media management, public information sharing and managing supply requests.

“Exercises like this are an important way for the Local Disaster Management Groups to test capabilities, ensure lines of communication remain open and the sharing of resources is achieved when a real disaster strikes as we’ve seen most recently with the bushfires which heavily impacted the Western Downs,” Toowoomba mayor Geoff McDonald said.

Along with making sure there is enough food and shelter at the centres, Insp Deacon said providing information to evacuees was an area that needed improvement.

“One of the common things we heard is that when the homes were evacuated, residents did not know what was happening,” he said.

“We are trying to ensure the process around that so the evacuation centre staff have time to provide evacuees with briefings.”

Southern Queensland has just come through another wet summer, which has led to significant grass and scrub growth that will dry out over winter and heighten the fire risk.

On the top the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a possible return of La Nina conditions, which would bring a higher than average rainfall and possible flooding.

“Regardless of the forecasts, we have to be prepared for any event that could happen at any time,” Insp Deacon said.

“This is a way of making sure our planning and preparation is top notch.

“An evacuation is a high-stress environment, this is aimed at making it a better experience.”