About the toolkit​

​This toolkit has been designed to help private owners and community groups that manage heritage property (e.g. heritage buildings, trees, landscapes, archaeology sites, objects, collections).​

​The aim of the toolkit is to help you prepare for a potential disaster. ​

​Severe storms, floods and bushfires are common hazards in Victoria, and this toolkit focuses on these. It is not a replacement for expert advice, but aims to guide you through a process that includes:​

  • identifying risks to your heritage property​
  • assessing your vulnerability to those risks, and​
  • working out ways to reduce or mitigate the risks​
There are many risks that could affect heritage property. Understanding what they are will help reduce your specific risk. ​

The toolkit includes a worksheet for you to work through, as well as an explanation of how to follow the process.​

​While following the process, we recommend you read through the understanding heritage disaster risk pages on our website to learn about risk management as a process.

Using the disaster preparedness worksheet​

​The disaster preparedness worksheet (‘the worksheet’), is generic and can be adapted to your local conditions. There may be some sections that do not apply to your situation – you can delete or cross out. While working through the process, try to complement your existing systems rather than replicate them.

For example, having a site plan or a floor plan of your heritage property (or the place where your heritage object(s) or collection is located) will also help you with your planning. If you don’t have one to hand, a quick, rough sketch will work too.​

The disaster preparedness process​

​Following a structured step-by-step process as outlined below, will help you better understand your heritage property and the disaster risks that it faces. It also provides a framework to involve stakeholders in the process and build community resilience.​

The six steps in the disaster preparedness diagram are described in detail further down this page.

​When you follow the disaster preparedness process from the beginning to the end, you’ll land right back at the start. As you move through the steps it's important to remember that some things will change: your knowledge will grow, staff may change, resources will change and so on. ​

​Each time you work through the process new things will come to light and plans will improve.  ​

​The process guides you through preparing your heritage property for severe storms, floods and bushfires, and, while the toolkit can be used for other threats (e.g. climate change, drought, structure fires), detailed information is not included. Not all disasters can be prevented, but we believe that with the right preparation, their impacts can be reduced.​

​Continuous improvement through ongoing planning​

​Review your preparedness plan regularly or at least every two years. There are other specific points when you should revisit your preparedness planning, too, like when the use of the place changes (e.g. after renovations, a severe weather event, or staff changes). ​

​Involve staff and volunteers​​

If you have staff or volunteers that help you manage your heritage property, site or object they need to be involved in helping you create an action plan. Heritage risk is everyone's business. Involving everyone from the start will help you to get the best outcome. ​

Involve your community ​

You may like to invite others from your community to help you work through the process. This helps create connections and to build relationships. Well-connected communities can support each other and bounce back more readily when disasters occur. Working together can also encourage others in your local community to think about their own preparedness. You may even find ways to better prepare your community as a whole. ​

If possible, work through the process with your friends, family, staff, volunteers and any others from your community who may like to participate. Different people see different issues, so it’s best to include as many people familiar with your heritage property as possible. '

When it comes to risk management, the more brains working together, the better!​

Step-by-step process​

Task 1

​Identify the types of disasters that may threaten your area and complete 'table 1' in the worksheet. Information is provided in the links below to help you quickly find out about your local bushfires or floods threats. ​

​Storms​

All of Victoria is at risk of severe storms, so preparatory actions that reduce storm impacts should be taken for all heritage property. ​

​Bushfires

Visit VicPlan and search your address for a property report. The report will show you if your property is in or near a bushfire prone area (BPA), or subject to a bushfire management overlay (BMO).  If you are in one of these you will need to prepare for bushfires. If your property report indicates there’s a BMO or BPA close to your property, you may like to consider preparing for bushfires too. Find out more about BPAs and BMOs.​

Bushfire attack level (or BAL) is a way to understand the bushfire risk more specifically at a property. Knowing the BAL rating of your site may help you decide what preparedness actions you want to prioritise. The CSIRO has tutorials that step you through calculating your BAL. ​​

Floods

Your local catchment management authority will have flood plain mapping information for your area. The Victorian State Emergency Service (VicSES) also produces local flood guides. ​
Flood-related planning controls will also be listed on VicPlan property reports, just like BMOs. Controls relevant to flooding are:​
  • Special building overlays (SBO)​
  • Land subject to inundation overlays (LSIO)​
  • Floodway overlays (FO)​
  • Urban floodway zone (UFZ)​

​Task 1​

  • Brainstorm with as many people as possible all the negative impacts to your heritage property you can think of in relation to the risks you identified in step 1. ​
  • Add these impacts into table 2 in the worksheet. View examples of potential impacts to different types of heritage on the Heritage Council of Victoria’s website.

Task 2​

  • ​While everyone is together, identify the types of activities you do to help you prepare when a bushfire, flood or severe storm is predicted. ​
  • Discuss what more you could be doing to reduce the impacts you identified add these activities also into table 2.​

​

Task 1​

  1. Grab your site plan and take a walk. ​
  2. If you are at a property make sure you look both inside and outside. ​
  3. Can you see anything that might contribute to your risks? Mark them down on the site plan to add to table 3 later.​
  4. Now is also a good time to make a note of any overdue maintenance and get this done.​

The overall risk is a mix of how likely an event is and the consequences of that event.​

​Task 1​​

  • As a group, decide the likelihood and consequence ratings for each of your risks. ​
  • Add these to Table 4.​

​Task 2​​

  • Plot your ratings on the worksheet’s risk matrix. ​
  • You can find out more about risk matrices and how to use them at Risk 101.​

​Task 3​​

  • Transfer the risk level from the matrix to the final column in Table 4. This is the overall risk rating for that hazard. You can use this rating to help you work out what actions are your highest priorities.

If you have completed steps 1 to 5 then you should be ready to develop your action plan. The action plan is located in the worksheet (table 5).​

​Using the worksheet take all the information you’ve gathered from the previous steps and turn it into prioritised actions.​

For each action you will need to identify an owner and due date for each action.​

As you identify each action you will need to identify what resources or budget might be needed. ​

Tables 2 and 3 include actions you've already identified and table 4 includes your risk ratings.  ​

Tips:

If you don’t have upfront budget to do everything – it might be better to allocate budget to actions over different budget periods.​

Organise a community working bee to help you. ​

Task 1 ​

  • Decide how you will prioritise all the actions identified in Tables 2 and 3.  ​
  • There is no right or wrong way to prioritise the actions you plan to take. ​
  • There is more guidance about prioritisation on the  'understanding heritage disaster risk' page.​

Task 2​

  • Complete the action plan (table 5) in the worksheet.  ​
  • The action plan includes space for you to:​
  • Note the resources and budget required to do the action​
  • Identify any potential barriers to completing the action​
  • Identify a task owner and a due date to have the action completed by​
  • The final two columns in the action plan provide space for the action to be signed off as completed, and for any notes that might help next time it needs to be done.  ​

Task 3​

Print out your action plan and stick it up somewhere where everyone can refer to it often. ​

This step is about you doing the tasks to get your actions done. ​

​Throughout this process you may have identified actions that need to be done regularly, like cleaning the gutters every autumn and spring. Remember to transfer these into your cyclical maintenance plan. An example of a cyclical maintenance plan can be found in Heritage Victoria’s Minimum Standards for Maintenance.  The maintaining and modifying a heritage property page has additional resources too. ​

​At this point you will be close to completing one cycle of the process. Hopefully you now have a greater understanding of the risks faced by your heritage property, and are working your way through the action plan. ​

​Risks can never be completely removed, but they can be reduced or mitigated, lessening the negative impacts on your property in the event a disaster occurs.​

Tips:​

  • ​Include updates on implementing the action plan as a standing item on regular meeting agendas or make a calendar reminder when actions are due to keep the action plan on track and front of mind. ​
  • Update your action plan as actions get done.​

Page last updated: 10/07/24