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How Warburton was inspired to keep building resilience

The Resilience Canopy helps communities like Warburton to dream bigger by fostering capability and capacity

A case study

Prepared by The Resilience Canopy Team
Published 20 November 2025

summary

The community of Warburton saw its neighbours in Millgrove enhancing roads and trails, hosting community days, acquiring funding for backup power and other infrastructure, and much more, with the support of The Resilience Canopy.

Inspired, it decided to review, renew and strengthen its Resilience Plan (which had focused solely on emergency preparedness), with societal struggles like youth engagement and navigating tourism at the fore. Now it’s Warburton’s turn to take more meaningful steps and become an inspiration for other communities!

It’s this ripple effect among communities that will enable The Resilience Canopy to build our movement of 500 resilient communities across Australia.

Snapshot

$1 =

$9.60

For every dollar spent on disaster risk reduction, there is an estimated $9.60 return on investment. Source

27

X

Australia spends up to 27 more times more on recovery than on resilience. Source

45

%

The percentage of Australians who say the nation is more divided today than in the past. Source

Fires and

Floods

Warburton is in a high-risk bushfire and flood area, and faces other societal challenges, such as a reliance on tourism and low youth engagement.

“The Warburton community is interesting. There's a great mix of characters there. And I think there's a lot of lived experience that hasn't been fully tapped into yet. It's been really insightful to learn from the residents, hear what they think are the strengths and the worries, and really build on those existing networks, relationships, assets and capacities that are already there to becoming a stronger community.”

– Ebony Hogg, Eastern Community Legal Centre, and Resilience Canopy Practitioner

The challenges

After seeing the devastation of the Black Saturday bushfires on other Victorian communities, the Warburton Emergency Planning Group (WEPG) was established in 2012 to serve as a local voice to Yarra Ranges Council.  

This small but committed group of volunteers has been keeping the Warburton community informed, ready and prepared for extreme weather events ever since. The group’s efforts have been immense but have focused solely on the emergency management space.

In the neighbouring town of Millgrove, the Millgrove Residents Action Group (MRAG) engaged with The Resilience Canopy to formulate a Resilience Plan 2023, which was more holistic, tackling not only the flood and bushfire risks that the two towns share, but the community’s other societal stressors as well.

See Millgrove’s full resilience plan

Warburton community members watched Millgrove tick off its resilience plan items, from solar installations (thanks to a $277k

grant Millgrove received) to fun, engaging community events that reduce isolation and promote community spirit (thanks to local partnerships).

Read more about Millgrove's achievements

Given the proximity, Warburton and Millgrove community members are tightly knit. And before long, The Resilience Canopy was supporting WEPG to shift Warburton to a broader, more inclusive resilience approach that enables them to address other societal stressors facing the community.

Two central challenges identified in initial community consultations are:

  • A lack of youth engagement, and
  • the duality of the town's tourism drawcard - both a gift and a challenge.

The challenges

The beauty of Warburton is that its emergency management efforts to-date have built crucial capacity and capabilities within the community, providing an ideal springboard for these more diverse actions, which will benefit everyone who lives in or visits Warburton now and for a long time to come.

One example that showcases this capacity is the radio relay tower they got installed with the support of the local council, Bendigo Bank and other bodies during their first resilience attempts. Prior to this, residents could not receive ABC National Radio, leaving them isolated and unable to be kept up-to-date.

WEPG member Gordon Buller calls the radio station a ‘lifeline’ because of the peace-of-mind it offers residents.

“The tower was very important because it gives everybody the security of knowing what the warning signs are,” he says. “That was one big achievement.”

WEPG can boast a handful of similar achievements made in recent years, and hope to apply these same skills and connections to aiding initiatives that address their youth engagement, tourism challenges, and any other priorities that emerge from the community engagement discussions they’re currently embarking on...

The Actions

To help Warburton address its broader community resilience goals, The Resilience Canopy is giving WEPG the tools to invite more people in, especially those who may not have felt like they belonged in past conversations.

Warburton has now undertaken three Resilience Canopy Deep Dive sessions to assess community risks and to plan proactively, with strengths and challenges identified through empowering, respectful community engagement exercises and discussions. 

Eastern Community Legal Centre (ECLC) has been supporting Warburton throughout this process. It’s part of the Centre's work advocating for climate justice - ensuring inclusive strategies to adapt to climate change impacts and to support community members to make decisions about the things that matter most to them.

The Actions

In 2024, off the back of the first Deep Dive session, WEPG conducted a community resilience survey, which garnered 80 responses from community members.

It highlighted strengths, such as the strong sense of community in Warburton, its diversity, well organised events, and respect for nature.

Crucially, the survey also pinpointed community challenges and priorities. It reinforced the initial key priorities identified by WEPG – youth engagement and the duality of tourism – while also raising new priorities, such as:

- a need for stronger communications both between community groups and with the public,
- calls to address the housing shortages,
- and a desire to improve local services, including public transport and medical facilities.

Subsequently, WEPG has already taken action to address the need for better communication, by partnering with the neighbouring community of Millgrove on a ‘3799 Connect’ newsletter, a print and digital community newsletter that aims to keep community members in both communities much better informed.  

Meanwhile, The Resilience Canopy is also helping to guide Warburton’s community members on how to approach partners, and to connect them together.  

Through community collaborations with the likes of ECLC, engaging the wider community and impactful partners, and drawing on the successes of Millgrove and other Canopy Communities, Warburton is on track to create a Resilience Plan full of meaningful actions.

Watch this space!

Impacts

“We want a mix, some old heads that have experienced life but also some people that can use new technology in some way to keep the interest going, see whether we can get people thinking about it. The big thing I feel is, we just have to get the discussion happening.”

— Gordon Buller, WEPG member

As the Warburton community sets about creating its Resilience Plan and how to action its identified priorities, the impacts of its latest resilience journey are just beginning.

But even after three community engagement sessions, our core CREW principles – Connection, Respect, Empowerment, and Wisdom – have been on full display:

Impacts

  • Connection
    When Warburton locals came together in early 2025 for their first Deep Dive session, there was a clear sense that something important was happening—not just for those in the room, but for the whole community. Bringing together members of the Warburton Emergency Planning Group, two Resilience Canopy practitioners, a council representative, and several long-time residents, they discussed people, place, and what matters most, with care and curiosity. There will be plenty more connections to come as Warburton rolls out its resilience plan.

    But arguably the most important connection was between Warburton and Millgrove, with MRAG and WEPG working together to help both communities thrive. Sharing knowledge has already allowed Warburton to engage The Resilience Canopy, and continuing to do so will help Warburton achieve its goals effectively. Along the journey, we hope Warburton can connect with other communities and help them on their way too.  
  • Respect
    The Deep Dive sessions were grounded in respect. In one example, perspectives differed on tourism. Some saw it as a strength, others as a pressure point. But instead of growing frustrated, the group leaned into the complexity. Recognising that lived experience shapes how people see their town, the group saw how harnessing these differences is part of building a stronger, more connected future.
  • Empowerment
    By making substantial progress to their emergency initiatives already and having an established community group, the community feels more confident in approaching partners and planning for the best outcomes in terms of emergency preparedness and other community priorities. The Resilience Canopy is aiding this empowerment by honing these skills and amplifying the community’s network.

Impacts

  • Wisdom
    In one of Warburton’s Deep Dive sessions, one moment really captured wisdom (and arguably all four principles of CREW) ... Someone pointed out that there wasn’t a business owner in the room. Instead of brushing past it, the group paused and reflected. Who else should be here? Whose voices are we missing? They made a commitment to invite small business representatives to the next session.

This is why CREW is at the heart of The Resilience Canopy program—to ensure that no one in a community feels left behind, and that diverse perspectives are welcomed into the process. It’s heartening to see these principles being enacted in the early stages of Warburton’s latest resilience journey, and we look forward to sharing more examples as the community progresses.

Impacts: what worked?

Want to know more about C.r.e.w.?

What characteristics does a resilient Canopy Community have in common? Connection, respect, empowerment, and wisdom, also known as C.R.E.W.. Find out more on our Program page

Looking ahead...

The future is already looking brighter in Warburton.

The community is now working to identify its field of opportunities to pinpoint meaningful Resilience Plan items. As they do, The Resilience Canopy will be there to guide them through it and to connect the community with partners to help action the priorities.

And just as Millgrove inspired Warburton to review and renew its community priorities, we hope Warburton can inspire other communities across Australia too.  

Because this is how we build our movement. This is how we build a connected, ready, strengthened Australia.

Inspired? Follow in Warburton’s footsteps and help your community become more resilient.