Building just system responses to intimate partner violence and coercive control: Four points to consider
Policy responses to domestic and family violence are shifting Australia wide, influenced by the latest National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children 2022-2023. In Queensland, the recommendations from the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce has provided a springboard for discussions on how best to construct responses to coercive control that hold those using violence accountable, but do not have unintended impacts on victim-survivors. To achieve just outcomes for victim-survivors, just systems responses are needed.
Gaps in current systems responses in Queensland have contributed to high-profile domestic homicides. The coroners’ report into the death of Hannah Clarke and her three children, recognised a failure of all agencies to recognise the extreme risk of lethality, given that the offender had not been physically violent. Part of the reason for this is that physically violent acts can be recorded as incident by police and services, whereas coercive control is made up of series of controlling and manipulative behaviours that create fear.
Changes in policy responses provides an opportunity to rethink and redesign how systems respond to coercive control, with a focus on ensuring systems are just. Four points need to be considered in building just system responses to coercive control:
1) Identifying a pattern of behaviour
To build a systems based on just responses, agencies need to shift from focusing on incidents of violence, and instead focus on patterns of controlling behaviour. This shift is already occurring. For example, the Safe and Together training undertaken by Child Safety in Queensland encourages child protection practitioners to focus on ‘pivoting to the perpetrator’ by documenting the patterns of behaviour that fathers are using in the home, and the impacts these are having on women and children. Documenting the patterns of behaviours allows for more informed decision making by practitioners, and can better inform legal decision making. Information sharing between agencies is integral in documenting patterns of behaviour, and creating a holistic understanding of risk.
The shift towards a pattern based approach will take time because incident focussed responses still dominates the overall system. This is evident when engaging men in men’s behaviour change programs. During the first few weeks of programs, men consistently focus on ‘the incident’ which saw them charged, and ultimately mandated to a program. This narrative has been encouraged by justice system responses, which focus on specific incidents. The focus by men on ‘the incident’ encourages denial, minimisation and blame in the first few weeks of programs, as they try to justify and argue their behaviours in a specific moment in time. Focusing on a sustained pattern of behaviour, and its impacts, encourages accountability. In doing so it helps the men unravel ways of thinking and behaving that they have normalised in their relationships with women and children.
“The focus by men on ‘the incident’ encourages denial, minimisation and blame in the first few weeks of programs, … “
2) Intersecting vulnerabilities
Intersectionality is an important consideration in understanding variable vulnerabilities amongst women who have experienced DFV. This can include issues such as mental health, rurality, poverty, citizenship status, and cultural identity. Migrant and culturally and linguistically diverse women (CALD) are often identified as a group that is highly vulnerable to the perpetration of domestic and family violence, but also to systems abuse, therefore requiring responses that acknowledge these intersecting vulnerabilities. There are forms of abuse that are more prevalent or more effective in harming or controlling when perpetrated against CALD women. Some of this abuse includes not allowing the woman to participate in religious practices, sharing false or inappropriate information with community members to damage the woman’s reputation, refusing to let her socialise with people from her language group particularly when she does not speak English, and threats of deportation. CALD women often rely on technology to stay in contact with family overseas and are particularly harmed when unable to access technology. While many of these behaviours can be perceived as social control or psychological abuse, they are not clearly typified in law and the true impact of these abuses on women is not obvious to the mainstream. This is further complicated when referring to violence perverting specific cultural practices, such as dowry theft.
The need for a nuance understanding of domestic and family violence is also fundamental to allow police and legal systems to identify the correct perpetrator of violence and the impact of legal consequences. Women have often chosen to not report violence due to fear of the impact of reporting on their visas. Other common problem is women that do not speak English fluently being disadvantaged on their interactions with the police.
First Nation women have shared similar concerns when it comes to laws around domestic and family violence, with intersecting vulnerabilities not being acknowledged (involving also culture and language) and the difficulty to trust legal interventions considering the high incarceration rates for aboriginal people, with aboriginal women routinely perceived as the offender and not the primary victim by the police.
The introduction of the concept of coercive control into criminal law and the creation of a specific offense to account for this crime is an attempt to increase safety and have a legal response to the pattern of abuse that is less visible in domestic and family violence. It should create a system that is more sensitive to diverse survivors’ needs, and capable of responding earlier to abuse, preventing fatalities. Calibrating the system to this change is fundamental though to prevent further harm to the most vulnerable.
3) Why differential responses to justice are needed
Coercive control has been incorporated in Queensland and NSW, progressing a discussion on the best way to respond to this violence, including civil and criminal law responses. The discussion also includes extensive training for law enforcement to be able to understand the nuance in the concept and trial projects to enhance collaboration between specialist services and the police. This law can only work if systems responses change.
The concept of coercive control has to be incorporated to law to expand the definition of domestic violence and the options for responding to violence. A purely punitive response leading to imprisonment cannot attend to the need of diverse survivors and communities. At the same time perpetrators are not heterogeneous group and need a range of responses suitable for both accountability and enabling change. While restorative justice may not always be the answer in these cases either due to the difficulty to determine consent in a context of coercive control, victims need to feel empowered by the legal process in order to cooperate and they need the reassurance they will not face homelessness, deportation or loss of custody of their children if they report coercive control.
4) Community education
Encouraging community accountability is integral to creating just systems responses to coercive control. To encourage community members to report concerns to agencies, or to assist friends and family in seeking support, community members need to have a good understanding of coercive control. Community education is needed to combat commonly held misconceptions about coercive control. Trust in systems responses is integral to community engagement. Community education also needs to incorporate how communities can play a role in addressing coercive control, and what roles bystanders can play. If communities are more informed about coercive control, they will be better placed to make informed choices about when to act. Creating whole of community responses to coercive control is essential to prevention of domestic and family violence.
Authors
Amy Young, Ana Borges-Jelinic, Elena Marchetti and Patrick O’Leary,
Disrupting Violence Beacon, Griffith University
Portable ultrasound devices could provide an alternative to x-ray machines for diagnosing forearm fractures in children in a move that could alleviate waiting times for families in hospital emergency departments (ED).
Dr Snelling said the ultrasounds were performed by nurses, physiotherapists and emergency physicians at four south-east Queensland hospitals.
“They treated 270 children, aged between five and 15 years, during the randomised trial, which included a check-up 28 days later and another check-in at eight weeks,” Dr Snelling said.
“The findings show the majority of children had similar recoveries and returned to full physical function.”
Less than one-third of children who were given an ultrasound needed a follow-up x-ray and care at an orthopaedic clinic.
Those who didn’t have a buckle fracture or fractured arm were discharged from hospital without the need for further imaging.
Professor Ware said children who had an ultrasound initially had fewer x-rays, and shorter stays in the ED.
“Families were also more satisfied with the treatment they received,” he said.
“The results are promising and have wider implications beyond in hospital diagnosis and follow up care.
“By using a bedside ultrasound, this frees up the x-ray machine for patients who really need it and can potentially be a cost-cutting measure for hospitals as they reduce the number of x-rays without comprising the safety of patients.
“It also would be extremely beneficial in rural or remote areas eliminating the need for children and their families to travel to a larger hospital for an x-ray.”
Dr David Bade, Queensland Children’s Hospital Director of Orthopaedic Surgery said: “This research will allow us to achieve a more efficient diagnostic and treatment service for these common injuries, not only in big tertiary hospitals but possibly also in smaller regional and even rural centres, where there can be a delay for X-ray diagnosis.
“Collaborative research such as this, allows us to tackle such health inequality in a small but meaningful way.”
Professor Hugh Grantham ASM, Emergency Medicine Foundation Chair said: “This is a great example of emergency medicine research at its best: identifying practical, translatable interventions that provide immediate positive outcomes for patients, and help relieve the burden on our hospitals and health system.”
The research was funded through grants from the Emergency Medicine Foundation, Wishlist Sunshine Coast Hospital Foundation, Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellowships and the Gold Coast Health Study Education and Research Trust Fund.
Dr Snelling is a practicing Paediatric Emergency Physician Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, which offered two of the sites where the study was undertaken.
Last week, Professor Rosemary Stockdale, Dean Engagement, welcomed alumni and industry partners to the Griffith Business School Showcase. This event brought together members of the vibrant Gold Coast business community, fostering an environment of connection, collaboration, and the development of fruitful partnerships.
Highlighting the event’s significance, Professor Caitlin Byrne, Pro Vice Chancellor (Business), emphasised that the showcase truly encapsulates the value proposition of the School and said;
“Through deep engagement with our key partners in government, industry, and business, we strive to make a significant impact in the communities we serve.”
The guests heard from two exceptional Griffith Business School graduates who shared their transformative experiences during internships. Dr. Melodie Ruwet, whose internship at CSIRO provided invaluable insights into the contributions that PhD candidates can make to organisations. She provided crucial skills such as project management, critical thinking, research, and conducting interviews and surveys.
Another alumnus, Rob Rollington, recounted his own internship journey at Griffith, which led him to welcome interns into his company as part of the Work Integrated Learning program. He conveyed the immeasurable benefits of sharing knowledge and mentoring students and shared an example of how an intern’s current property management studies greatly contributed to a development project by providing insights on relevant new legislation.
Dr. Anna Kralj, from the Griffith Institute for Tourism (GIFT), provided an enthralling glimpse into the ground-breaking business applications of the cutting-edge tools available in the GIFT Biosensor Lab. Attendees learned about state-of-the-art technologies, including virtual reality eye-tracking, screen-based eye tracking, mobile eye-tracking glasses, facial expression analysis, and electro-dermal hardware, which enable the real-time analysis of participants’ physiological and emotional reactions.
In her closing remarks, Professor Stockdale reiterated the significance of these inspiring stories and highlighted the countless possibilities that lie in collaborating with the school. She also highlighted that PhD candidates bring a lot to the table and that the School is welcoming companies to engage one of our PhD candidates on a scholarship.
A Griffith-led study has found that traditional and digital social networks are key to improving community water management and sanitation in the Pacific.
Published in Water Policy, this is the first study of its kind that investigates how social networks are being used to support improved rural water, sanitation and hygiene (WaSH) outcomes in rural Fiji.
Dr Regina Souter from the Australian Rivers Institute and the International WaterCentre.
“Due to geography, climate, the high frequency and severity of disasters, transportation difficulties and resource constraints, government and private sector support for rural populations in the Pacific Islands is often limited.”
The ability of governments to offer ‘water services’ to rural populations in these regions is limited, with it ultimately falling on non-state institutions, such as church, chiefs, and village organisations and committees to provide these services.
“The strong socio-cultural norms of reciprocity, self-help, and obligation that exist in the Pacific Islands allows support around water and sanitation to flow from urban to rural areas,” said lead author Dr Mark Love, a research fellow at the International WaterCentre and the Australian Rivers Institute.
“Our research shows that social networks built on kinship and place, supported by norms of obligation and reciprocity, constitute a central part of the WaSH enabling environment in Fiji.”
“When people and culture, rather than a government or its agents, enable agreement to ensure equitable access to safe, reliable, and adequate water, they must be appreciated as a critical component of the local WaSH environment.”
The study demonstrates that family related urban—rural linkages, customs, relations and practices, and common interest associations like village development committees are an innovative response to social, economic, and environmental change and can be critical for enabling water, sanitation and hygiene in Fiji.
Migration for reasons of education, work, and climate change is resulting in ‘hybrid’ village development committees today being made-up of both rural residents and town-based urban emigrants.
Dr Mark Love, research fellow at the International WaterCentre and the Australian Rivers Institute.
“This provides important opportunities to engage with leaders in urban centres when dealing with rural development issues, such as WASH, Dr Love noted. “Increasingly, engaging solely with rural people in the village is no longer acceptable as no longer represents an engagement with the ‘whole community’.”
With very high mobile connectivity, internet access, and social media use in Fiji (more than 70% of the population, primarily Facebook, but also TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, as well as messaging apps such as Viber and Messenger), social media has become an important post-disaster buffer, with urban and rural residents able to communicate and organise, providing an adaptive capacity to respond to emergency rural water and sanitation needs in the region.
“In Fiji, social media has been critical for improving water and sanitation services and to support disaster preparedness and response,” Dr Love said.
“For example, Facebook ‘live’ information discussions have been proactively used as a community development and advocacy tool, known as talanoa, to counter false narratives about COVID-19.”
Given the unique character of the Pacific Islands region, using existing social networks to strengthen rural water and sanitation outcomes is a fruitful community water management ‘plus’ strategy for both governments and non-government organisations alike.
“We argue that in contexts like Fiji, where rural WaSH considerations are on people’s radar and a functional degree of trust and accountability permeates social relations and urban—rural linkages, acknowledging and engaging with social networks simply makes sense,” Dr Love said.
“The insights gained from this study can be applied to similar contexts around the world where communities are situated remotely from centralised water, sanitation and hygiene services.”
Five hundred Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA)employees are the first to embark on a Griffith University upskilling program, helping the banking industry to detect and disrupt organised crime.
Griffith’s micro-credentials program sets a new national standard in the training of Australian financial crime specialists and will be delivered to five cohorts over three years with the first cohort of CBA staff enrolled across Australia, India and New Zealand.
Griffith Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance Director, Professor Andreas Chai said the academy develops the knowledge and skill of new graduates entering the workforce and supports current professionals in their ongoing professional development.
“CBA’s workforce plays a crucial role in detecting and disrupting financial crime across Australia, and Griffith has developed first-rate course materials which provide confidence for CBA and its customers,”Professor Chai said.
Director of Griffith Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance, Professor Andreas Chai
“Working together, we can help to deliver positive outcomes not just for CBA, but for the wider financial system and the community as a whole.
“The content featured in this program blends insights from Criminology, Law, Accounting and Information and Communication Technologies in a fundamentally new way to address the growing professional needs of the industry.”
Working closely with experts from the Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance, Griffith’s Professional Learning Hub develops bespoke professional development programs for organisations such as CBA and is managing and delivering the program.
Griffith’s Professional Learning Hub manager David Noonan said the launch of the micro-credential program with CBA was a groundbreaking and exciting achievement toward tackling financial crime.
Griffith Professional Learning Hub manager, David Noonan.
“Offering CBA staff flexible upskilling opportunities which provides university recognition through digital badges and a pathway into further postgraduate study is one of the most exciting elements of this partnership,” Mr Noonan said.
“Creating bespoke micro-credentials allows us to develop and deliver flexible, responsive learning opportunities that directly address the unique challenges facing the workforce and this partnership highlights the importance of co-designed learning between universities and industry.
“The online program provides a unique blend of academic research, learning and teaching alongside embedded practical insights from CBA and industry partners that will aim to upskill staff to disrupt financial crime.
“Across four co-designed micro-credentials delivered online, CBA staff will have the opportunity to connect with academic experts in the field and build a shared understanding of the current challenges and emerging trends facing those disrupting financial crime.”
Deputy Director of Griffith Academy of Excellence in Financial Crime Investigation and Compliance, Professor Jacqueline Drew
Academy Deputy Director Associate Professor Jacqueline Drew said the academy and micro-credentials program filled a major gap in the education of financial crime professionals.
“Financial crime cannot be tackled without taking an inter-disciplinary approach. This is perhaps why financial crime is so challenging to understand, prevent and disrupt,” Associate Professor Drew said.
“What we need in the financial crime space right now is University-Industry partnerships. The partnership between Griffith and CBA is significant because history shows us that if we continue to work in silos financial crime will flourish.
“We’re building a cohort of industry experts who will be positioned to tackle financial crime in the ‘real world’.
“The Academy provides a forum where critical and emerging financial crime issues and trends can be identified, and through collaboration, we can better tackle financial crime and reduce its impact on governments, businesses and individuals.”
Auchenflower train station has been brought to life thanks to Queensland College of Art.
Adding to a growing list of public art projects around the state by Griffith University’s QCA LiveArt program, the mural has this week been completed by a team of students.
QCA LiveArt invites students to work with industry and community groups to create real world public art outcomes across a wide range of industries, with a focus on large-scale wall paintings that expand students’ own studio research.
They’ve collaborated on projects with Longreach Regional Council, Queensland Children’s Hospital, Lendlease, Economic Development Queensland, Brisbane Airport, Ipswich City Council, and the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
QCA LiveArt Creative Director Dr Simon Degroot
Creative Director at QCA LiveArt Dr Simon Degroot said the public art course enabled students to get valuable work-integrated learning experiences.
“For this type of project where we all work as a group, students are mentored through the whole process including responding to a brief, concept design, installation on-site and all the safety aspects so they are prepared when it comes to applying for their own opportunities,” he said.
“As the Olympics approaches there will be a lot of opportunities for artists to create public artworks, so we are preparing students through these experiences so they will be ready when those opportunities arise.”
The team of artists have already been receiving positive feedback about their work, with passers-by sharing how happy they are that art has been included as part of the station renovation.
It’s all thanks to the Positive pARTnerships program run by Queensland Rail which seeks to get artists involved in public art at and around train stations, with several QCA LiveArt collaborations already visible at sites around the city including Brunswick Street, South Bank and Rocklea.
Queensland Rail Graffiti management team leader Steven Pennycook said the collaboration with Griffith was an exciting project helping populate the next generation of artists.
“It’s a very wholistic approach from start to finish and we really see the development of those learning outcomes,” he said.
“The safety aspect is particularly important here with around 25,000 volts running overhead, so we work with the teams closely on that, but we love being a part of the whole process and seeing the students deliver something that helps them feel connected to the city and that they can be proud of and walk past for years to come.”
Griffith Bachelor of Arts and QCA LiveArt student Ally Cassidy
It’s not only QCA students who can get involved either, but students in any Griffith course.
Bachelor of Arts student Ally Cassidy took the public art course as an elective, but was successful in having her design chosen for the Auchenflower project.
“Auchenflower in Scottish Gaelic means ‘bunch of flowers’ so I looked at the different flora in the area and worked them into my design,” she said.
“I wanted to complement rather than replicate the greenery that’s so prevalent in the suburb, so I’ve included a lot of blue and orange to create a more colourful experience.
“It’s been so cool watching my design go from a digital file to something you can walk through.
“It’s incredibly exciting and I’m very grateful for the experience.”
Studies into the interactions between migrating humpback whales and marine vessels such as passenger ferries, recreational boats and cargo ships off the South East Queensland coast has strengthened the bonds between research, government, and stakeholders in a proactive approach to understand the behaviour of whales in Moreton Bay.
Professor Susan Bengtson Nash, from Griffith University’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, is leading the three-year Australian Research Council Linkage project ‘Life in The Shipping Lane’, which was granted $323,388 in 2022.
Associate Professor Susan Bengtson Nash, Centre of Planetary Health and Food Security
Working closely with the Port of Brisbane, the project extends an existing four-year partnership to understand humpback whale abundance and distribution in Moreton Bay, a first step and proactive response to the Federal Government’s National Strategy for Reducing Vessel Strike on Cetaceans and other Marine Megafauna.
The project has been developed in collaboration with traditional owners, not-for-profit organisations, and local industry. Previously, there was very little data to assess the behaviour of whales in the region and the project is expected to identify potential mitigation measures for consideration.
There have not to date been any reported whale ship strikes within the Port of Brisbane’s shipping channel.Previously, there wasvery little data to assess the behaviour of whales in the wider Moreton Bay area and the Port of Brisbane considered it important to understand any potential risks to enable informed risk-based decision making.
Lead researcher Professor Susan Bengtson Nash said the findings would help fill knowledge gaps surrounding the populations’ seasonal distribution and habitat use in coastal waters which in turn would inform management of human-whale interactions in the region.
“The Moreton Bay region is characterised by rapid coastal and maritime development, as well as a growing humpback whale population,” Professor Bengtson Nash said.
“These findings present a local environmental management challenge but also an opportunity for the sustainable use of this rapidly developing region.
“These findings will help build our knowledge about how whales use the Bay, informing future planning and supporting a safer Moreton Bay for all.”
Port of Brisbane CEO, Neil Stephens, said the Port saw great value in helping fund the research to enable all parties to better understand whale behaviour at a local level.
“Moreton Bay is widely enjoyed by the community and the northern part of the Bay incorporates the Port’s shipping channels, which are critical to servicing South East Queensland’s growing population. The research to date has shown that parts of Moreton Bay are important areas for migrating whales which is valuable information to help better understand whale behaviour in the local area,” Mr Stephens said.
The research team have already made strong headway with their research, recently publishing findings of five years’ worth of strategic surveys in Frontiers in Marine Science that uncovered Moreton Bay as an important resting area for migrating humpback whales.
This study found:
on average, 42% of the individuals observed on the southern leg of the migration entered the bay;
77% of pods entering the bay had accompanying calves;
And 48% of these pods were found to be resting or ‘logging’ (a behaviour associated with nursing).
Dr Juliana Castrillon, who was employed on the consultancy, said studies such as this were vital to highlight the importance of resting stopovers in general throughout the whales’ annual migration.
“There is also a need to determine other stopovers along migration and consider risk mitigation measures to protect these individuals within these areas,” she said.
The research team PhD candidate Raphael Maynaud, who is supervised by Professor Bengston Nash, detailed the development of spatial models to predict where humpback whales were likely to be found within Moreton Bay, and to what degree they overlapped with commercial shipping traffic.
“We’ve identified areas within the Moreton Bay region where ships and whales may potentially interact with each other and this information can then help promote the safety of humpback whales,” Maynaud said.
This research, published in Marine Policy, monitored the movements and patterns of humpback whales within Moreton Bay over five years.
Professor Bengston Nash said this long-term research project and the resulting findings would also bring focus to the need for identifying similar resting stopover sites of these extreme migratory populations across their species range.
Triple Grammy Award-winning musician Tim Munro has been welcomed back to his alma mater to inspire the next cohort of budding musicians.
The Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University alumnus, flautist, writer, broadcaster and teacher is known for treating his audiences as equals, welcoming them into musical worlds with passion, intelligence and humour.
Recently coming from the University of Chicago’s Grossman Ensemble and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Associate Professor Munro has performed around the world with Ensemble Signal, Imani Winds, Wu Man, Newspeak and Third Coast Percussion, as well as Ensemble Q, Stradbroke Chamber Music Festival and Tyalgum Festival in Australia.
He premiered more than 100 works while touring the United States and internationally, but said returning to Australia to work with home-grown has been immensely satisfying.
“We have some of the finest musicians here of anywhere, and an audience criss-crossing the country who is hungry for musical experiences,” he said.
Inspired by immersive, multi-sensory experiences in other art forms, Associate Professor Munro seeks to captivate audiences in a similar way.
“I want to punch holes through the walls separating audience and performer — whether by involving the audience as part of the performance or allowing listeners the physical freedom to move around the performance space — I want to welcome them in, not just stand above them as the expert.
“Music has a way of getting past the clarity and logic that exists in words, pictures and actions to hit us directly in the heart.
“I love that music is understood completely differently by any two humans on earth.”
Associate Professor Tim Munro
On joining the Conservatorium’s teaching team, Associate Professor Munro said he is excited to bring new, unique experiences to students and elevate less-heard voices to the Conservatorium stage.
“I’m eager share the things I’ve learned over the past two decades as a touring musician,” he said.
“I’ve taught in over 40 US states but in the role of a visiting artist for a few days at a time, so I’m really looking forward to a sustained and meaningful role as a musical mentor in the lives of the next generation of Australian musicians at Griffith.”
Catch Associate Professor Munro at the free community event The Healing Power of Music on Friday 26 May 2023 from 10am until 12:30pm.
The forum will bring together artists, academics and creatives to share through sound and discussion, ancient and contemporary perspectives on the role and purpose of music in our society, with a particular focus on musicians’ mental health, and how we can promote a broader definition of music incorporating community wellbeing, educational reform and cultural innovation.
Only 11 years on from the devastating 2011 flood, Brisbane was again inundated, but this time it was different. In a new edition of ‘A River with a City Problem’, Dr Margaret Cook, from Griffith University’s Australian Rivers Institute, shows that while the quick-moving water followed familiar riverine flood paths on the cities southside, northside residents were left unprepared as waters inundated areas untouched since 1974.
Although forecasts predicted that the weather system would move south, the rain remained over Brisbane for days, dumping phenomenal volumes of rain. Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk expressed the thoughts of many:
“We never expected this rain, this rain bomb is just unrelenting. It’s not a waterfall, it’s like waves of water. The ‘intense weather’ was like an unpredictable cyclone.”
Between 23 and 28 February, the Brisbane City Council area received between 400 millimetres and 1,100millimetres (on average 795millimetres), much of which fell between Friday 25 and Sunday 27 February.
Dr Margaret Cook, aResearch Fellow and environmental historian at theAustralian Rivers Institute
“Not since the 1893 floods had Brisbane experienced these volumes in one month,” Dr Cook said. “The three-day record exceeded that of the 1974 flood, with the northside suburb of Alderley receiving more than metre of rain over those three days.”
“In 72 hours, Brisbane received around 80 per cent of the city’s average annual rainfall, that’s almost all the rainfall that London gets in an entire year. Upstream, Wivenhoe Dam, the city’s main flood mitigation strategy, received about three Sydney Harbours worth of water in under three days.”
Fortunately, at the start of the 2022 flood event Wivenhoe Dam was only 56 percent full and was able to hold back 2.2 million megalitres before water releases were necessary. The problem was that the rainfall downstream of Moggill was more than three times the rainfall in 2011.
Although a moderate flood alert was issued on 26 February, constantly changing weather scenarios caused predicted river flood heights to be revised five times in the next 11 hours, with alerts being out of date soon after (or before) their release.
“People might be surprised to hear the peak flood height in 2022 at the Brisbane City Gauge in Edward Street was 3.85m, substantially lower that the 4.46m recorded in 2011,” Dr Cook said.
“The 2011 event was primarily a riverine flood, with the heaviest flooding in the main river itself, which is vastly different to what we saw in 2022. In last year’s event flooding occurred in the Brisbane River and creeks and through overland flow, all at once.”
“Flooding in creeks, especially on Brisbane’s north side, surpassing all previously height records heights, including those in 1974, which were much more like the 2022 flood.”
Water levels in the 2022 Brisbane flood
Kedron Brook, in Brisbane’s north, broke records with 893 millimetres, compared with 661 millimetres in 1974 and 315 millimetres in 2011. The swollen creeks soon reclaimed their floodplains, flooding streets and homes. After two La Niña years of frequent rain, the soaked ground increased run-off and overland flow, which when combined with creek flooding meant areas left dry in 2011 flooded in 2022.
Jamica Santos had lived near Enoggera Creek in Acacia Drive, Ashgrove for 25 years. In 2011, floodwaters reached her driveway. in 2022, the creek rose less than two metres outside her home.
“It was crazy,” She told TheCourier-Mail, “it just kept rising, it wouldn’t stop. I was scared because of how quickly it was rising.”
She wasn’t alone. Images of flooded streets, submerged homes and dramatic rescues on social media showed residents were caught off-guard by the rapidly rising floodwaters. People and pets were rescued by watercraft as 2,770 Brisbane streets flooded and the Bruce, Warrego and Ipswich highways were all closed for days. Thirteen people in total lost their lives in the 2022 floods, with 23,400 properties flood-affected in all but 11 of Brisbane’s 188 suburbs.
Pontoon debris was found as far away as K’gari (Fraser Island) and Noosa, and Moreton Bay was shrouded in a plume of mud for weeks. Once again, Brisbane faced a massive recovery effort and a huge financial liability, while city residents again confronted property loss, homelessness and heartache.
With two major floods in quick succession (2011 and 2022), that were so vastly different in mechanism and outcome, we have been given a sharp reminder of the region’s sub-tropical climate and propensity to flood.
“Despite the region’s complex network of four rivers and 22 creeks, we tend to focus only on the Brisbane River when it comes to flooding,” — Dr Margaret Cook
“But as 2022 showed, floods can occur via the river, Brisbane’s creeks or from overland flow, or any in combination of these. While history offers insights into flood patterns, every flood will be different, and we need to be prepared for all scenarios.”
With climate change and growing levels of urban density, the risk of extreme flooding is predicted to increase, making proactive changes essential to reduce risk rather to avoid being caught by surprise the inevitable next flood. But as Dr Cook points out, Brisbane’s current reliance on a dam, the Wivenhoe, to save it from floods is heavily dependent on where that rain falls.
Creek flooding near the Marist College in Ashgrove, Image Credit: Marist College Ashgrove Old Boys’ Association
“Dams have a finite storage capacity and while they can hold back upstream floodwaters, heavy rainfall downstream will fill Brisbane’s creeks and stormwater systems and inundate he city as it did in 2022. To avoid this, any flood mitigation strategy must consider that Brisbane creeks, overland flow and stormwater systems, can all flood independently of the river. This complex hydrology needs to be front of mind when planning and redeveloping the city.”
After the 2011 floods measures were introduced to raise and retrofit homes to make them more flood resilient and since 2022 a buy-back scheme was implemented to move 500 homes from the floodplain. “These are all proactive steps in the right direction as we develop adaptive strategies to living with the region’s complex flood hazard,” Dr Cook concludes. “But more needs to be done in terms of re-zoning, preventing increased development in flood-prone areas and removing more properties from these areas.”
“We need to go beyond dams for flood mitigation and embrace strategies like revegetation and creating flood soaks on the floodplain, better stormwater management, new building designs and materials and lastly public education to adapt to living in a sub-tropical city like Brisbane, situated on river that floods.”
The second Edition of ‘A River with a City Problem’ by Margaret Cook is available in book shops or from University of Queensland Press from 23 May 2023.
Chair of Anatomy Professor Mark Forwood.
Griffith University’s Body Donation Program reached a milestone of 600 donations since the program began in 2006, representing the ability to provide a quality education to thousands of future health professionals.
Just as donating your organs may save a life, donating your whole body contributes to educating the next generation of health professionals who will undoubtedly go on to save lives every day.
Providing practical opportunities to study the human body in a controlled educational environment, Chair of Anatomy Professor Mark Forwood said providing consent to become a living donor is the first step to making an invaluable contribution to healthcare at the end of life.
“Our researchers, scientists and health practitioners have dedicated their working lives to advancing scientific and medical knowledge, promoting health, and finding cures for human illness,” Professor Forwood said.
“Studying real human bodies is an invaluable approach to learning anatomy for most health care workers including physicians, surgeons, dentists, therapists, exercise scientists and other allied health workers.
“For medical students, anatomical donations not only help to advance clinical medicine, surgical techniques or pathology, they also contribute to learning medical skills such as clinical history taking and examination, as well as clinical reasoning that develops diagnostic judgment and patient management.
Anatomical research generates scientific knowledge both nationally and internationally, thereby improving healthcare and alleviating suffering.
“Only about 50 to 70 per cent of registered donations are accepted at the time of death due to stringent regulations and screening criteria, so it is imperative more people consider registering for the program.
Griffith University Memorial Garden has been established within the grounds of the Southport Lawn Cemetery.
“A donation may not be accepted for reasons such as body weight, time limit after death or because the donor had a specific medical condition preventing successful scientific embalming.
“It is important to discuss your decision to donate with your family because in the end, it is the next of kin who has the final say about whether your body is donated or not.
Donors can nominate a limited term of up to three years, after which the ashes can be returned to the family, or an indefinite donation.
In the case of an indefinite donation, long-term donations will be scattered at the Southport Lawn Cemetery where a granite sculpture stands to memorialise loved ones; and where family members can arrange for a plaque to be placed.
“Occasionally surviving family members are surprised to learn that the body of their loved one cannot be returned to them for a typical funeral, but will be cremated and the ashes made available. It is therefore important to make sure your family is familiar with the limitations of the program and aware of the process.”
Living donors can still register to be an organ donor and this allows experts to assess whether your organs can save a life or if your whole anatomical donation is best suited for education purposes at the time of your passing.
Every year Griffith expresses gratitude to donors and their families by holding a thanksgiving service to celebrate and acknowledge the contribution that donors make to enrich the education of health students and professionals.
Griffith covers all operational costs of the Body Donation Program, and no costs are passed on to a donor’s estate including transfers, registration, and cremation.
Living donors can withdraw their participation from the program at any time by notifying the school in writing.
