Whether she's leading a team to coordinate the Department of Communities' response to the pandemic, bushfires or cyclones; Natalia Gemmell takes it all her in stride.
As the newly appointed Director Emergency Services - Strategy, Natalia and her team play a critical role in reducing the short and long term impacts of emergencies on people and communities.
"It takes a special kind of person to work in an emergency environment," Natalia said. "Our team comes from a diverse range of backgrounds, bringing transferable skills, resilience, and enthusiasm. We are excited to introduce new initiatives that will strengthen our capability and continue building a positive team culture. I love the diversity that everyone brings to our dynamic team - it makes working in such a fast-paced and challenging role much more enjoyable."
Under WA's State emergency management arrangements, Communities is the support organisation responsible for providing and coordinating emergency relief and support services for an emergency arising from any of the 28 hazards prescribed in legislation. These hazards include events such as bushfires, cyclones, earthquakes and floods.
Communities' Emergency Relief and Support (ERS) team support people and communities by working in partnership to plan and prepare for emergencies and coordinate immediate and long-term supports for people in the response and recovery phases of emergencies. To assist people impacted by an emergency, Communities provides supports including emergency accommodation, food, clothing, personal requisites, personal supports and financial assistance.
"I love the fact that ERS has a very direct and immediate impact on people's lives at what can be the worst time of their life," Natalia said.
In her first week in ERS, Natalia and her colleagues coordinated responses for the first COVID lockdown of 2021 and the Wooroloo bushfires which devastated 59 homes east of Perth. A few weeks later tropical Cyclone Seroja hit the Mid-West impacting 16 local governments and causing catastrophic damage in Kalbarri and Northampton, which required immediate emergency support and recovery efforts over the next two years.
"At the same time, we were getting information that there was space debris that was going to fall out of the sky and land in WA. We were tracking all these events across a State that's bigger than Western Europe and has a lot less infrastructure," Natalia said.
Before working in ERS, Natalia worked in Housing Policy. "At the time, I didn't even know that Communities did emergency accommodation. My team was writing the WA Housing Strategy 2020 – 2030, and I remember saying, 'We need to cover social housing, remote housing, affordable rentals, shared equity and affordable home ownership, but not emergency accommodation, Communities doesn't do that'," she recalled.
Natalia finds her current role deeply gratifying and says working with WA Police on disaster victim identification support that Communities provides following a major emergency has been particularly rewarding for her.
"For me that has direct resonance because I lost my dad and my sister's three kids in the MH17 bombing in Ukraine. It is good to know that if something like that happened here, Communities would be around to support families through the process."
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