In July 2024, DisasterWISE hosted a community conversation with Senator Tony Sheldon – Special Envoy for Disaster Recovery. After recent travels alongside Peter Williams to the East Gippsland district, Pete invited Tony along to hear directly from community members posing the question ‘What does Community-Led mean to you?”.  A dynamic dialogue ensued from the Disasterwise community, with some members who had been directly impacted from the 2019/2020 bushfires, Black Saturday, Queensland floods and Cyclone Jasper.

This report captures key threads from the Get-Together, sharing lived and learned experiences, along with examples of where ‘community-led’ have worked well and the identified needs and considerations for community-led action for future disaster events.