Australian Emergency Fund

This year we supported more than 300,000 people before, during and after disasters

“ We support people through floods, fires, cyclones and we also play an important role providing psychological first aid in the aftermath of what we call ‘Collective Trauma’ events. While circumstances are always shocking, we can be proud that Red Cross volunteer team members are there supporting the community during times of great need.” –Australian Red Cross Staff Member, Emergency Services.

Thank you for your kind contribution to the Disaster Relief & Recovery Fund. Together, in the past 12 months, we’ve helped Australians recover from COVID-19, floods, fires, cyclones, storms and heatwaves, and so much more. 

Emergency Services:

• Nearly 1,700 volunteers and employees activated.

• Supported 131,000+ people during 42 emergency activations in Australia.

• 18 Register. Find. Reunite (RFR) activations with 10,090 registrations.

• Queensland Red Cross teams supported in over 20 evacuation centres and 24 recovery hubs and outreach locations

• New South Wales Red Cross teams supported in over 35 evacuation centres and 24 recovery hubs across impacted areas

Unfortunately, our Emergency Services teams are responding to extreme weather events in Australia with increasing frequency. When these crises intersect with people experiencing vulnerability, the disaster is magnified — overwhelming an individual or community’s capacity to cope with the impacts. We work at this intersection, providing on the ground support before, during and after the event.

In FY22 we responded to bushfires, floods, collective trauma, outreach, severe storms, heatwaves and the pandemic, with every state and territory activated at some point during the year

Our Register. Find. Reunite. service played a crucial part in these responses, by letting family, friends and emergency services know that people were safe. Since launching in 2013, this service has been activated on average 20 times a year.

2022 floods In 2022, southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales were severely impacted by multiple rounds of devastating floods. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated, homes and belongings were destroyed and communities now face years of rebuilding.

We listened to the immediate needs of people coming into evacuation centres, as well as their concerns and frustrations, providing support and also advocating for people’s needs with other agencies and government.

Members of our First Nations Recovery Team were also on the ground, supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in disaster-impacted locations. The culturally safe response they provided resulted in the emergence of a greater number of First Nation communities seeking our help.

“ When we ended up at the relief centre, Red Cross was there. They were the ones that were organising the chaos, and it was chaos … It was terrible, but somebody had to make some kind of … sense out of it, and that was Red Cross. Now, 15 months later… Red Cross is still here. They were there then, they’ve been there the entire time, they are still here now, and they will be here for as long as we need them. They’re not going anywhere.” – Community member and service provider, Victoria

Thank you for your support!

Links:

• Australian Red Cross Annual Report: July 2021 - June 2022