Local Emergency Management Committee

The Local Emergency Management Committee analyses the risks from natural and man made hazards that may be reasonably expected to impact on the City of Melville.

It's priority is to identify potential risks and treat residual risk.

Western Australia is a diverse state that presents a variety of hazards and risks that differ from
one local government to another. As the third largest WA local government by population, the City of Melville encompasses a large variety of geographical locations including river foreshore, wetlands, and bush land and incorporates a significant infrastructure and transport network for the metropolitan area.

The City is host to large industrial and commercial areas in close association with densely populated urban developments. Jandakot Airport, which is currently undergoing extensive redevelopment, borders the City to the south, and the main arterial road, Leach Highway links the port of Fremantle to the industrial areas in the eastern suburbs.

There is clearly a need to identify and manage a large number of hazards that may occur in the City of Melville, so the Community Emergency Risk Management (CERM) Project was commenced to achieve this goal.

Aim

This project aims to identify emergency risks from rapid onset natural hazards along with risk from man made hazards that may directly impact on the City of Melville, and to identify strategies to prevent or mitigate the risks.

Objectives

• Create a safer community by identifying, analysing and evaluating risks

• Establish the community perspective of risks to the community by public survey and information sessions

• Prepare a project management plan and communications strategy

• To establish an emergency risk management working group representative of the LEMC
to oversee the CERM process.

• Identify the sources of risk and elements at risk to the City of Melville

• Determine treatment options for identified risks

• Establish a monitoring and review process for the future

Project scope

The CERM project focuses on elements within the community of the City of Melville that may be impacted upon by emergency events. This project encapsulates the whole of the local government area and includes the following suburbs:

Alfred Cove, Myaree, Applecross, Ardross, Attadale, Bateman, Bicton, Booragoon, Bull Creek, Kardinya, Leeming, Melville, Mt Pleasant, Brentwood, Murdoch, Palmyra, Willagee and Winthrop.

The Process

The management of emergencies and disasters is conducted under four processes:

Prevention – Measures taken to eliminate or reduce the incidence or severity of emergency events.
Preparedness – Measures taken to ensure that, should an emergency occur, communities, resources and services are capable of coping with the effects.
Response – Measures taken in anticipation of, during and immediately after an emergency to ensure its effects are minimised.
Recovery – Measures which support emergency affected individuals and communities in the reconstruction of the physical infrastructure and restoration of emotional, economic, environmental and physical wellbeing.

The emergency risk management processes assists the local government to understand the dynamics of each identified hazard and put into place local plans and mitigation strategies aimed at significantly reducing the impact on the community should an emergency occur.