Pete Williams shared the Flowerdale story (and photos and video) this morning at the Creative Performance Exchange. Pete stepped in to help when his sister in law called for help as they lost their home, and has continued to do an amazing job at enabling the redevelopment of the town.
It was really great to hear about the real story of what happened there – the side of things that you don’t get to see in the traditional media.
- How the residents fought the fire with no experience
- How they self-organised with no formal structure
- What it took to make things happen when there were roadblocks blocking vital resources
- How people felt during the fires and today
- How they connected their networks to bring resources to the scene
- What a sustainable town looks like and the steps to make it happen
- How the numbers of men seeking counseling are now growing, and more.
Here’s a word cloud of live coverage on #cpx conversation followed by an archive.
kdelarue “Outcomes-based computing”. As opposed to risk, cost, etc – no business planning. Just do whatever works.
rosshill three mantras – “don’t walk by”, “take the next step” and “get in harms way”
kdelarue The trauma is ongoing. Being cooped up in a caravan with your family in the rain with little info on rebuilding is torture.
irldexter Garbage Warrior http://bit.ly/36l4aP Thurs 23rd July, 6pm #stateofdesign
kdelarue Open, *regular* communication still drives the Flowerdale recovery.
rosshill the shift from the leaders telling people what to do, to facilitating/enabling people to make their own change
kdelarue “Set unrealistic goals that are totally impossible – and beat them.” Never underestimate the power of a community with purpose.
irldexter “directional intensity”, purpose driven, solutioning..
rosshill talking about installing the mesh network with @irldexter from @nodecity – video at http://www.nodecity.com/
rosshill the tree planting helped the community to ‘grow their roots’ http://bit.ly/SiFP8 (last weekend)
kdelarue The pioneers had to live sustainably, but “green” is seen as a “new age” term. We need to go back to basics.
stevemc1 Community efforts quickly outperformed government’s capacity to serve; online info & comms, freedom of action, no bureaucracy were key
rosshill listening to bush telegraph interview with @rexster about green rebuilding after the fires http://bit.ly/JzP3W
stevehopkins How can we rebuild so that in 100 years people say ‘those guys built back we’ll
stevemc1 Learning from Greensburg, a town in USA destroyed by a hurricane. Their plan, lessons learnt were online. Pete phoned Mayor
stevehopkins I’m a servant to the community – I don’t make decisions I just help do things and make it happen @rexster
kdelarue Drew on example of Greensburg, Kansas example for rebuilding town.
stevemc1 Most of the relief seems to have come from outside government, simply due to necessity. Official agencies overwhelmed, just not there
kdelarue “In the face of adversity, demonstrate a model for a better world.”
stevemc1 Vision: a sustainable empowered community.
kdelarue “You can’t have a 536,000 hectare crime scene.” (Problems with locking people out of towns.)
rosshill on roadblocks – you can’t have a 550 hectare crime scene, it just doesn’t work
irldexter Functional requirements (what) designed/architected somewhat, non-functional (how) was adhocracy/meritocracy
jwswj Have an idea, knock urself out – but all backed by communication
rosshill “you went and stood in a central place (the pub) and shit just happened.” it was self-organising and community driven @rexster
stevehopkins Power of a loosly organised committee ‘u just went in there stood and waited and then you would find something to do’
kdelarue At first, local people self-organised; govt did very little. When govt asked, locals presented a detailed, fully-costed plan.
rosshill see the results and progress of flowerdale on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/flowerdale
mikeboyd RT @rosshill: if “we gave them something to say yes to” we could be in control of our own destiny – talking to government etc
stevemc1 Fortescue mining donated on site huts from Perth for temp village
rosshill the community gave the gov the plan and let them claim credit for it – as long as it happened attribution was just fine print.
lukegrange RT @irldexter: Flowerdale #bushfires @rexsters first video http://www.vimeo.com/4163527 from the preso…
stevemc1 The old adage applies, don’t present problems to the hierarchy, present solutions
stevehopkins If not us then who if not mow then when
irldexter a) Give em something to say yes to. b) If not now then when?
rosshill if “we gave them something to say yes to” we could be in control of our own destiny – talking to government etc
kdelarue All of the towns destroyed in the fire were in one shire. Large geographic area, but small organisation.
jwswj Give them something to say yes to
indysocks We decided early on that we would be a do it yourself town
irldexter Flowerdale #bushfires @rexsters first video http://www.vimeo.com/4163527 from the preso…
indysocks After two hours of telling is we couldn’t do we asked ‘well what the he’ll can u do?’ @rexster talking to the ‘official’ rebuilding org
kdelarue “You can’t uncrack an egg – the second law of thermodynamics.”
rosshill the committee pointed out a lot of what they couldn’t do, but @rexster wanted to know what they *could* do, and they did.
jwswj Looking at https://flowerdale.pbworks.com
kdelarue Flowerdale #bushfire recovery team wiki – http://flowerdale.pbworks.com/
rosshill his experience in business liquidation probably formed a good basis for @rexster helping to organise in the flowerdale aftermath
stevemc1 Police roadblocks seriously restricted relief efforts. Even stopping people carting water to fight fires
jwswj They had a common goal and took it one step at a time. Then regroup.
kdelarue – http://helpflowerdalenow.blogspot.com/
rosshill reading http://bit.ly/9Q1uf
rosshill organisation = small steps, then regrouping, with the same intentions
rosshill the guy with the broken leg couldn’t fight, but he could lead – so he did.
stevemc1 Watching video about Flowerdale at http://www.vimeo.com/4163527
rosshill at watching @rexster on community action 2.0 – the stream is at www.livestream.com/thesquigglyline
rosshill watching http://vimeo.com/4163527 introduction
kdelarue “The Aussie spirit is ‘Never Give Up’”.
irldexter Flowerdale presentation live streaming online roght now http://www.livestream.com/thesquigglyline
irldexter is the hashtag for this morning’s Flowerdale presentation…
indysocks At watching @rexster on community action 2.0 – check the (weak) www.livestream.com/thesquigglyline
stevemc1 I’ve landed on the geek table at http://twitpic.com/b1nb4
scottkilmartin Off to see @rexster speak at the Creative Performance Exchange on Community Action 2.0 – Flowerdale Recovery from Bushfires
rosshill about to kick off with @rexster at to talk about the flowerdale story
By Ross Hill - July 21st, 2009 at 1:02pm with 1,011 views - creative performance exchange peter williams
