Stories

27 April 2023

Imagine moving to Tasmania from a country where the concept of bushfire is as alien as the Chiko roll, a potato cake or the humble vegemite sandwich.

A country where the only smoke that curls in the autumn air is from household chimneys or meats grilling over charcoal at a hawker street food market, not from fuel reduction burns aimed at reducing next summer's bushfire threat.

If you've moved to Hobart, Glenorchy, Kingborough or Clarence in September or October there's a good chance you will see your first snow, followed within weeks by warnings that the 'bushfire season' is just around the corner.

These are the people we wanted to talk to at this year's Harmony Week in Hobart recently.

Harmony Week is a celebration of diversity in our community and brings together people from all different backgrounds. Held in Franklin Square, Hobart, we set up a stall to help us raise awareness around the bushfire threat with newly arrived migrants and those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

^{The program and arm bands for Harmony Week 2023.}

The newly-arrived migrants we met came from across the planet. Nepal, India, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Africa, Israel, the Ukraine, France and Germany.

That reflects statistics from the Migrant Resource Centre, which shows languages mostly spoken among migrant communities in Hobart and Glenorchy are Hindi, Mandarin, Cantonese and Nepali.

It also matches the top five countries from where newly arrived migrants in Tasmania depart from – the UK, New Zealand, China, Nepal and India.

Our new brochures, which describe in simple language what bushfire is, how to prepare for bushfire and how to prevent bushfires proved a real hit, and we hope to get this information out to the wider multicultural community.

Most of the people we spoke to had heard of bushfires being prevalent in Australia, but didn’t know how bushfires started, which areas in Greater Hobart are most prone to bushfire, and had a limited knowledge of the catastrophic fires that have hit our region, including the Dunalley bushfires and of course the terrible 1967 fires.

Meeting people from different cultures and countries during Harmony Week was a great opportunity to spark the conversations about bushfire and help them understand the importance of preparing for the bushfire threat.

^{Zelah from the Sparking Conversations team with an attendee at Harmony Week.}

Speaking plainly

We are quickly realising that one of the challenges we face in helping communities prepare for bushfire is ensuring we are talking to everyone in the community, including those who come from other countries and whose first language is not English.

We can do that by connecting with different cultural and ethnic groups across Greater Hobart, and making sure that information is clear and easily understood.

We can't assume that everyone grew up with the seasonal threat of bushfire, and need to understand that for many in our community the idea that a raging bushfire could threaten their new Tasmanian home and family is one they must grapple.

We are working on a small welcome pack to give to new Australian citizens and will roll it out at the next citizenship ceremony in Glenorchy.

More information

If you are a newly arrived migrant in Tasmania and would like to learn more about what a bushfire is and how to prepare for it, see our brochure or visit the links below.

• Migrant Resources Centre Tasmania
• Tasmania Fire Service