Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits

Floods and bushfires rare significant risks in Queensland, and so it is essential that there is consistent flood and bushfire messaging provided by state and local governments before, during and after a flood event.

The Get Ready Queensland Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits for Queensland councils and state agencies provide a comprehensive suite of flood and bushfire messaging that councils and relevant state agencies can use in their social media and other flood communication messaging to improve community awareness and resilience to floods for all Queenslanders.

We know from reviews of recent flood and bushfire events in Queensland that councils across Queensland are strongly, and effectively, embracing social media channels and disaster dashboards for disaster related messaging to their local residents.

The Get Ready Queensland Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits have been created for all Queensland councils and state agencies is available on the secure Get Ready Queensland Council Hub. It provides a suite of consistent flood messaging that councils and state agencies can use on social media, disaster dashboards, other flood communication materials for local residents.

Flood Communication Toolkit

The Flood Communication Toolkit for Queensland councils and state agencies, was first published in 2020, and has since been revised to include more than 100 messages and matching co-branded graphics with three new topics sections. Message topics include: Flood Aware; Flood Prepare; Flood Myths; Floodwater Safety; Flood Insurance; Flood Recovery; Rebuilding After Flood; and Flood Resilient Homes.

Content partners consulted for the revised Flood Communication Toolkit include: Queensland Fire Department; the Bureau of Meteorology; Insurance Council of Australia (ICA); Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC); Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts; and Get Ready Queensland.  

Bushfire Communication Toolkit

For councils forward planning for bushfire season, the Bushfire Communication Toolkit for councils and state agencies brings together more than 80 ready-to-use bushfire messages with matching co-branded graphics. Message topics include: Bushfire Aware; Bushfire Prepare; Bushfire Myths; Bushfire Recovery; Rebuilding after Bushfire; and Bushfire Resilient Homes.

The Bushfire Communication Toolkit has been prepared by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) in consultation with content partners including: Queensland Fire Department; CSIRO; Insurance Council of Australia (ICA); Queensland Building and Construction Commission (QBCC); Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy (DCHDE); and Get Ready Queensland.  

Accessing council co-branded graphic resources for flood and bushfire messaging

For access to the Get Ready Queensland Council Hub to download the Get Ready Queensland Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits for Queensland councils and state agencies and more than 180 co-branded graphic resources for your council or state agency please email getready@qra.qld.gov.au using your council or state agency email address to request a password for the secure access.

For queries about the Get Ready Queensland Flood Communication Toolkit please email the Get Ready Queensland team at: 
getready@qra.qld.gov.au

How to use the Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits

We have listened to councils who told us they wanted a compendium of ready-to-use flood and bushfire communication resources with features including:

  • provision of consistent messaging to help improve flood communication consistency between local, district and state
  • ready-to-use messages with images/graphics/tiles suitable for social media channels, that are co-branded with council logos
  • flexibility so that they can use the resources to plan and manage their own flood messaging schedules
  • ability to rapidly access and select relevant quality messaging resources according to flood communication requirements at the time.

Each topic contains a series of messages with text to copy/paste, a matching graphic thumbnail and filename or video filename or link, web links to existing webpages that are well maintained by Queensland Government (or other associated web pages) for more information, and a consistent use of hashtags for social media.

While the Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits focus on use in social media and council disaster dashboards, the text and/or graphics could also be used, as appropriate, to feed into other flood messaging to local communities via newsletters, social media feeds, community noticeboards, electronic billboards, emails, and text messaging.

Councils can add to or amend the provided text in situations where they have important communication relating to localised information during a disaster event, to promote a council flood related project, a Get Ready Queensland initiative, or a related council event, weblink or disaster dashboard.

Queensland Government will regularly review the Flood and Bushfire Communication Toolkits. Please visit the Get Ready Queensland Council Hub each time you use these resources to ensure you have the latest version available.

Related pages

Flood educational videos
Helping Queenslanders to understand flood risk, flood warnings, flash flooding, riverine flooding, and how catchments work
disaster dashboard small
Up-to-date information on everything you need to know including evacuation centre openings and locations, river heights, road conditions and closures, power and phone outages.