Public-private partnership in disaster management: A case study of the Gold Coast

Public-private partnership has important roles to play in disaster management, including building business and community resilience, developing community risk awareness and providing essential services. This paper reports on two recent initiatives in public-private partnerships on Queensland's Gold Coast. The first is an initiative by a local community group 'Varsity Lakes Community Limited' to prepare a disaster management guide for the masterplanned community of Varsity Lakes with support from NRMA insurance company and the local council. The second is the 'Community Watch' program initiated by the Gold Coast City Council to involve local community groups in various parts of the City for building disaster resilience. These two examples provide insights on evolving disaster management public-private partnerships that are more communitybased and bottom-up by nature. The study indicates that there is potential for including an additional layer of 'community' when conceptualising the existing fourtiered (commonwealth, state, district and local government) disaster management framework of Queensland.