Welcome to the October update about the Whole of Home Resilience project. Find out what the Whole of Home Resilience Project has taught us and some recommendations that can be applied to your home.

Whole of Home Resilience Project – What have we learnt?

The Castlemaine Institute have analysed the information collected from the Whole of Home Resilience assessments and thanked the households who participated in the pilot program in Mount Alexander Shire.

We learnt that the whole shire is affected by bushfire and storm risk, and we have a way to go to improve resilience of our properties, with the projected average resilience retrofit costing $23k and doubling resilience to the dominant hazard.

We learnt that the participating homes are more energy efficient than the state average and wonder if our willingness to take action for energy efficiency is a good sign that we'll also take action to improve resilience.

We learnt that every household is unique and there's no one size fits all solution. However, there were some common recommendations that might apply to your home.

Bushfires

• Keep leaves out of gutters.
• Seal gaps and cover openings such as vents or subfloors with ember screens.
• Manage the landscape around your home, particularly branches that overhang your house.

Storms

• Check the structural integrity of your roof and attached structures such as carports and verandahs.
• Clear blockages in stormwater downpipes and gutters and install overflows.
• Install seals on external glass doors.
• Check that any roof mount items are fixed to the structural members.

See the Project Snapshot below for more information on the findings.

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