2024 Resilient Australia National Awards

The awards endorse a wide range of initiatives; with past projects centred around risk assessment and mitigation, planning and preparation, and response and recovery.

The Resilient Australia Awards celebrate and promote initiatives that build whole of community resilience to disasters and emergencies around Australia as well as capture and share examples of resilience in action. The awards recognise collaboration and innovative thinking across a broad range of sectors and initiatives that strengthen disaster resilience with communities, institutions, and the private sector. Innovative models and approaches that create sustainable change are highly regarded.

The Resilient Australia Awards is proudly sponsored by the Australian Government in partnership with states and territories and managed by the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR).

Award Categories

• State and territory award categories
  • Resilient Australia Business Award
    • Open to businesses and the private sector, including tertiary colleges and universities.
  • Resilient Australia Community Award
    • Open to communities, community based or focussed organisations, and nongovernment organisations.
  • Resilient Australia Government Award
    • Open to state and federal government departments and agencies.
  • Resilient Australia Local Government Award
    • Open to local governments and local government associations.
  • Resilient Australia Mental Health and Wellbeing Award
    • Open to projects with a primary purpose or focus on the mental health and wellbeing of Australian communities before, during and after a disaster.
  • Resilient Australia School Award
    • Open to all public and private pre-school, primary and secondary schools only. School, children youth related projects managed by other organisations should be submitted in other categories.
  • Resilient Australia Photography Award
    • Open to individuals and groups. Submissions will not be accepted without the permission of the copyright holder.
• National award categories
  • Resilient Australia National Award
    • Award of excellence across all National Award categories. Projects demonstrate the most systemic change and groundbreaking results. Judges will consider winning projects from all Award categories except Photography.
  • Resilient Australia National Collaboration and Partnership Award
    • Recognition of projects that encompass activity across two or more partners, sectors, states or territories, and consistently demonstrate the power of collaboration and partnership when working toward a goal or mission with partners combining efforts and resources. Judges will consider winning projects from all Award categories except Photography
  • Resilient Australia National Research for Impact Award
    • Open to all tertiary institutions (colleges and universities). Applicants will showcase research that is having or will have a significant impact on knowledge, capability and practice and will enhance disaster resilience outcomes as a result. Applications for this Category will only be received and judged at the national level.
  • Resilient Australia National Business Award
    • State and territory winners in the Business category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Business Award.
  • Resilient Australia National Community Award
    • State and territory winners in the Community category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Community Award.
  • Resilient Australia National Government Award
    • State and territory winners in the Government category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Government Award.
  • Resilient Australia National Local Government Award
    • State and territory winners in the local government category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Local Government Award.
  • Resilient Australia National Mental Health and Wellbeing
    • Award State and territory winners in the mental health and wellbeing category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Mental Health and Wellbeing Award.
  • Resilient Australia National School Award
    • State and territory winners in the school category will be considered for the Resilient Australia National School Award.
  • Resilient Australia National Photography Award
    • The People’s Choice photography winner in each state and territory will be considered for the Resilient Australia National Photography Award.

Award Information

• Each jurisdiction has unique arrangements for their awards – in general, finalists are celebrated at an award ceremony and receive certificates. AIDR hosts the National Award Ceremony – national finalists receive a framed certificate; national winners also receive a trophy. Winners and finalists may enjoy coverage through local, regional, and national media. AIDR will cover travel costs for one project member to attend the National Award Ceremony if selected as a finalist at the national level. In the school category, AIDR will also cover travel costs for one student to attend the National Award Ceremony.

Criteria

Applications should highlight where they have contributed to:

• An increased understanding and awareness of disaster risk and resilience in their community.
• A collaborative and coordinated approach to reducing disaster risk and building resilience now and into the future.
• Enabling disaster risk reduction across all of society, and empowering individuals to take locally led, targeted and coordinated action.
• Aligning action and efforts to reduce systemic disaster risk and create stronger and more resilient communities before, during and after emergencies.
• Connecting government, community, not-for-profits, industry, and other sectors to form partnerships and complement each other’s efforts to build resilience.
• Generating knowledge, evidence and insights that enhance Australia’s capacity to prepare for and recover from emergencies.
• Influencing and empowering leaders at all levels to consider disaster risk reduction in their decision-making.
• An increased buy-in and investment in resilience building, where the benefits of disaster resilience are recognised and valued.
• Sustainable outcomes that recognise social values, diverse voices and consider local vulnerabilities and strengths.

For more information, visit Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR).