Across the Northern Rivers, businesses and community organisations are turning lessons from recent disasters into opportunities for growth, innovation and resilience. By investing in preparedness, strengthening operations and embracing new ways of working, organisations are building greater confidence in their ability to withstand future challenges.
While floods, bushfires and severe weather have tested the region in recent years, they have also highlighted the strength, adaptability and determination of local communities. The following organisations share the lessons they have learned and the practical steps they are taking to prepare for the future.
Learning from Nature: mememe Productions
For Cate McQuillen, founder of Richmond Valley-based mememe Productions, resilience starts with understanding the environment around us. The creative production house behind dirtgirlworld and Get Grubby TV has experienced the impacts of floods and bushfires firsthand. Those experiences have shaped both the way the business operates and the messages it shares through environmental education initiatives. Cate’s key message is about knowing your local risks, being able to go outside and understand the physical risk of where you’re living and working by understanding the landscape and the direction weather is coming.
“Climate leadership for me is super important. Talking about it with other businesses, talking about it within our industry, raising it as a very day to day situation.”
Through projects such as One Story and collaboration with the NSW Government's Get Ready Business program, mememe Productions also helps communities build awareness of sustainability and climate resilience.
For Cate and her team, the lesson is simple: understanding your risks and planning ahead can help businesses adapt to an increasingly uncertain future. Having a relationship with nature and understanding climate change becomes a business culture.
"We need to get ahead of this, and we have to be prepared for anything that can happen at any time."
Drawing on lessons learned from past severe weather events, the mememe Productions has embedded preparedness into everyday business practices, from understanding local risks to protecting critical systems so that if they have to leave in a hurry, their business would be okay on the other side.
Watch the video: Planning for the unexpected in a changing climate - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Planning for the unexpected in a changing climate - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Supporting Communities Starts with Supporting Your People: Social Futures
As a provider of mental health, housing, disability and family support services, Social Futures understands the importance of staying operational during disasters. The organisation has supported communities through bushfires, floods and severe weather events across regional New South Wales and Queensland. Those experiences have reinforced the need for strong emergency planning, clear communication and well-prepared staff.
For Chief Financial Officer Michael Carter, preparedness relies on people as much as processes and the key to success is to ensure staff are prepared for a disaster, so they can get back to supporting communities as soon as possible.
“People you rely on in an event have to be available.”
From regular staff updates to practised emergency response procedures, Social Futures has invested in systems that help ensure essential services remain available when communities need them most. During Ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, those plans were put into action as the organisation mobilised staff and protected critical assets.
"All your team need to know the emergency response plan."
Social Futures lived experience highlights an important lesson: resilience starts long before an emergency occurs, through planning, communication and ensuring people are ready to respond with confidence.
Watch the video: Emergency planning in action - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Emergency planning in action - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster
Building Resilience Before Disaster Strikes: Mountain Blue
For family-owned blueberry producer Mountain Blue, the 2022 Lismore floods became a catalyst for change. The floods inundated the company's South Lismore packing facility, damaging critical equipment and disrupting essential food production operations. In response, the business focused on strengthening its preparedness and reducing future risks.
Rather than simply recovering from disaster, Mountain Blue has used the experience to build greater resilience into its operations. Managing Director Andrew Bell identified one of the most visible outcomes for Mountain Blue is a custom-built flood barrier “fish tank” designed to protect essential packing equipment from future inundation. With the capacity to be built in a day and a half the flood barrier surrounds essential equipment and protects it from flood damage.
The business has also invested time in scenario planning, team training and emergency response exercises covering flood, fire and drought risks.
"You can't just have a look at the radar and see that a cyclone is coming and suddenly conjure up all the materials and mitigation measures that you need."
The lesson from Mountain Blue is clear: it’s much easier to mitigate a disaster than having to come in after a fact and clean it up.
Watch the video: From recovery to readiness - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
From recovery to readiness - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Reimagining the future for the Northern Rivers Performing Arts
When the 2022 floods inundated Lismore City Hall, The Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA) lost the venue it had called home for more than 30 years. Rather than waiting to return to business as usual, the performing arts company chose to rethink how it operated and what resilience could look like in the future.
The organisation adapted its business model, explored new ways of presenting work and strengthened its connection to local communities. At the same time, NORPA began developing a new flood-resilient home within a historic timber joinery, creating a space designed to withstand future flood events and support the long-term future of the organisation.
For Executive Director Libby Lincoln, the floods reinforced the need to adapt to a changing environment rather than hope for a return to the past.
"Natural disasters, climate change wasn't going to go away. Lismore was never going to go away. And NORPA certainly didn't want to go away."
By reimagining how creative arts are presented, engaged with and the spaces in which they are delivered, NORPA has created opportunities to innovate, rethink established practices and strengthen its long-term resilience. Guided by the enduring value of community, people and storytelling, not only is this approach is revitalising both a flood-resilient home and continuing performing arts for the region, it is also a demonstration how challenging circumstances can inspire opportunities for learnings, creative solutions and bold decisions.
Watch the video: Creative resilience and business innovation - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Creative resilience and business innovation - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Turning Challenge into Opportunity: Williams Group
For the Williams Group, resilience is about learning from experience and taking action before the next disaster occurs.
Repeated flooding has prompted the family-owned timber, hardware and manufacturing business to take a fresh look at how it prepares for disruption. Operating in the Northern Rivers for 90 years, the Williams Group has seen its share of flooding. General Manager Lyndon Poirrier explained how following major floods in 2017 and 2022, the company developed a comprehensive flood mitigation strategy focused on protecting stock, equipment and operations.
“Sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t give you much notice, but out of that we sat down and came up with a flood mitigation plan.”
With 14 stores over the Northern Rivers and Gold Coast and headquarters in Murwillumbah the Williams Group has had to consider flood plans for every store including river heights and flood triggers. Implementing simple changes, such as elevating valuable inventory and constructing additional mezzanine storage, has already reduced risk while securing land through a government-supported land swap in a flood-free industrial estate and expanding into modular housing manufacturing, has created new opportunities for business growth.
These practical improvements are underpinned by detailed flood plans, clear triggers for action and contingency arrangements across all sites so staff are prepared when the next flood happens.
"Would I say we would lose nothing? No, but we won't be anywhere near what we lost in 2017 and even more so in 2022."
Watch the video: Strategic moves mitigating risk - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Strategic moves mitigating risk - A story of businesses rising beyond disaster.
Resilience is built before disaster happens
While each organisation's experience is unique, a common theme emerges: resilience is built before disaster happens. Through planning, adaptation, creative thinking and inspired action these Northern Rivers businesses and community organisations have turned hard-earned lessons into practical action. Their stories serve as a reminder that while disasters will continue to challenge communities, preparation, collaboration and innovation can make a powerful difference in how we respond and recover.
Learn more
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