THE RESEARCH

When disasters strike, we assume emergency management agencies hold the information and communities receive it. This research challenges that assumption.

My PhD, completed at the University of Canberra in 2026, examined how communities communicated during three major Australian disasters: the 2019–20 Black Summer bushfires on the South Coast of New South Wales, and the 2022 floods in Brisbane and the Northern Rivers. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 19 community members who became key information sources during these events, the research reveals something that official frameworks have largely missed: communities don't wait to be informed. They build their own communication systems — and they do it remarkably well.

WHAT THE RESEARCH FOUND

The central finding is that some communities actively construct sophisticated communication infrastructure during disasters. Three interconnected processes drive this:

Layering technologies. People don't rely on a single platform or channel. They combine mobile phones, community radio, social media, messaging apps, and face-to-face networks into layered systems that create redundancy when one channel fails. These aren't workarounds — they're deliberate, adaptive responses to structural gaps in official systems.

Building trust networks. Trust, not authority, determines where people turn for information during disasters. Community members develop new connections across social boundaries with remarkable speed, validating information through relationships rather than official sources.

Information intermediaries. Perhaps the most significant finding. Some individuals don't just share information — they design and manage communication flows for their whole communities. They bridge official and unofficial sources, translate complex warnings into locally relevant guidance, and build networks that persist long after the immediate crisis. They become the communication infrastructure itself.

Margaret's Brisbane neighbourhood centre, which evolved from a 2011 crisis response into a formal coordination hub by 2022, is one example. Michelle, who constructed multi-layered communication networks across the Northern Rivers during the floods, is another. These individuals were doing critical work — largely unrecognised and unsupported by official systems.

AN IMPORTANT QUALIFICATION

This capacity is not evenly distributed. The same social connections and communication skills that enabled some communities to build these systems can also create barriers that leave others behind. Understanding what enables this capacity — and how to support communities that haven't yet had the conditions to develop it — is one of the most important questions this research raises for policy and practice.

THE THREE-PILLAR FRAMEWORK

The research produced a three-pillar framework for understanding how communities construct disaster communication infrastructure:

Pillar 1 — Technology integration and adaptation: How individuals combine multiple technologies into hybrid, adaptive systems that extend beyond using existing channels to constructing new ones.

Pillar 2 — Trust network development: How social relationships enable information validation, rapid sharing, and collective action — and how disasters can generate new forms of trust rather than simply activating existing ones.

Pillar 3 — Information intermediaries: How some individuals transform from information seekers into architects of community-wide communication infrastructure — and why this matters for how we think about disaster communication policy and practice.

WHY IT MATTERS

Emergency management in Australia continues to operate predominantly on a transmission model: agencies craft messages, distribute warnings, and expect communities to receive and act on them. This research suggests that model captures only part of the picture.

Communities are already doing the heavy lifting. The question is whether institutions will recognise and support that capacity — or keep designing systems built on the assumption that communities are passive recipients waiting to be informed.

THE THESIS

Information Intermediaries: How Communities Build Disaster Communication Infrastructure from the Ground Up

PhD thesis, University of Canberra, 2026

The full thesis is available through the University of Canberra library — link.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

If this research connects with work you're doing — in emergency management, community resilience, policy, or communication — I'd love to hear from you. Contact link