The glowing red sky didn't alert Yusnita Yasip to bushfire danger, a phone call from a neighbour did.
"I was just thinking [the sky colour] was natural. But then my neighbour said, 'Hey, can you see the sky? We have to evacuate. Don't you feel scared?'" Ms Yasip recalled.
"I became terrified."
The then-single mother of two had never experienced a bushfire before, having moved to the regional Victorian town of Bright from Indonesia for a fruit-picking job in 2017.
"I was relying on community, because I don't have Facebook and I didn't have access to a notification from an app," she said.
It was early January 2020 and Victoria was in a catastrophic bushfire season, an emergency closely followed by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more recently, the floods.
Each situation has thrown a spotlight on how authorities interact, in a crisis, with Victoria's multicultural population.
The pandemic revealed government updates were not being translated properly, while the floods prompted calls for community leaders to be more involved in emergency planning, management and recovery processes.
These crises appear to have prompted new programs — scattered across different organisations and funded by a collection of government departments — that aim to better connect authorities with culturally and linguistically diverse communities in regional areas, and prepare them for the next emergency.
"It's not about the emergency that's happening today," Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria acting chief executive Jiem Sheils said.
"It's about being set up and organised for any emergency that happens tomorrow: a fire, flood. These are our regions, there's always a crisis."
'Prepare yourself for bushfires'
In Victoria's north-east — where Ms Yasip and her sons fled from their house as the fire gathered pace in the mountains — a not-for-profit organisation supporting people from multicultural communities observed the issue and decided to do something about it.
"We became aware after the bushfires that there were a number of people from multicultural backgrounds [who] were not aware of how to respond to serious crisis situations," North East Multicultural Association (NEMA) president Ian Prentice said.
"[They] face a number of difficulties — [such as] language barriers, being isolated geographically and socially — and we felt that we needed to increase the connection with the people … who have migrated from other countries."
NEMA has received a $242,690 bushfire recovery grant for two community outreach officers to prepare and build capacity of culturally and linguistically diverse community members in emergency situations.
Working with 970 individuals from 43 non-English speaking backgrounds across four local government areas of Mansfield, Wangaratta, Alpine and Indigo shires, that's no small task.
However, Faryal Nawaz Khan — who moved to Australia from Pakistan in 2013 — is up for the challenge.
"Because I'm also from a different cultural background, I feel like I literally understand the problems or difficulties of any person who has migrated to Australia might face," Mrs Khan said.
One of her tasks is putting together phone trees that link NEMA's volunteer "cultural advocates" with community members so they pass on emergency warnings.
The trees — linked directories of contacts — also help build social connections during calmer times.
"A phone tree is an easy and quick pathway for a cultural advocate to communicate and connect with members to keep them informed," she said.
Mrs Khan is also educating people about how to prepare for an evacuation.
"I asked my friend, 'How did you prepare yourself for the bushfires?' And she told me her daughter was very clever as she packed up all her photos, DVDs, all the childhood memories stuff and clothes."
"I said, 'No, this is not the things you need to prepare. Did you pick up your documents? Did you fill your car with the petrol? Did you find out where you need to go? And she was like, 'Ah, no, I didn't know'."
Mrs Khan also welcomed efforts by emergency authorities, including the Country Fire Authority (CFA) and Emergency Management Victoria (EMV), to provide translated information and warnings.
An EMV spokesperson told the ABC the organisation was piloting a "new, language-enabled Vic Emergency app" to provide critical information and warnings.
"It will be piloted in 2023 in Arabic and simplified Chinese," a spokesperson said, adding a user group will provide feedback on the pilot and an engagement plan developed over coming months.
The CFA has continued to develop translated information, run meetings and trainings for multicultural communities across the state, while Fire Rescue Victoria employs multicultural liaison officers.
Mrs Khan added that an important part of her work was to educate people about how and where to get emergency information.
"Are we really providing the translated appropriate material and data to the community?" she asked.
"Most of the people [I work with] they are not IT literate. We need to provide them with a system and educate these people to understand how to use any app, how to understand the radar alerts."
A 'structured' way of working
Slightly further north — in Wodonga and across the state border to Albury — residents from more than 75 countries speak 55 languages, says the Albury Wodonga Ethnic Communities Council (AWECC).
In January 2020, a fire to the west of Wodonga was out of control and prompted several warnings, including an emergency warning.
"These caused some confusion for many of the newly arrived humanitarian refugees," noted a CFA media release at the time.
A community information session was held after that fire emergency and the council continues to work with the CFA on bushfire preparedness.
However, AWECC community executive officer Richard Ogetii said that, since then, the Victorian government has realised the need to have a "structured way of engaging with communities in emergencies".
"Now it's about, 'How do you ensure you have some level of continuity to ensure that the good things we learn from COVID, we are able to carry on with some of those good practices?'" Mr Ogetii explained.
He said the council was part of an initiative being developed that connects the seven regional ethnic councils with government agencies.
"We are in talks with the government for a program where we'll be able to create community working groups, which will now be able to respond to any kind of emergency. It could be a flood, it could be a bushfire, it could be COVID," he emphasised.
Mr Ogetii said a Hume working group was already operating.
"We discuss the issues of response, what needs to be done, if there are any gaps, how we can address those gaps," he said.
"We are also doing our own things, but we all have a forum where people can … share ideas and suggestions."
That Regional Multicultural Emergency Management Preparedness, Relief and Response is a program being funded by the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing.
"We recognise the expertise of multicultural communities to engage and work with their own community and support them to provide a tailored and meaningful response," a spokesperson said.
Floods trigger renewed support for multicultural communities
In 2021, a program emerged out of the pandemic that brought together multicultural leaders and emergency services.
The Multicultural Emergency Management Partnership (MEMP) was initially developed by the Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS), in collaboration with the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria (ECCV), with support from the state's Department of Health.
MEMP is a collaboration between the emergency management sector, multicultural leaders and community bodies to build trust and strengthen community resilience during and after emergencies, such as the pandemic, floods and bushfires.
The partnership was well received, and looks set to be continued in some form until June, after VCOSS received funding from the state's Health Department to deliver initiatives that support multicultural communities in north and north-west Victoria recover from the floods.
"This funding will build upon the investment made during the pandemic by the department to improve emergency management capacity in CALD communities," a VCOSS spokesperson said.
VCOSS said it would also undertake several other initiatives, including a community consultation to better understand the needs of multicultural communities in flood-affected areas.
In the long term, the MEMP will be reviewed to determine a possible ongoing role for the program in Victoria's emergency management planning.
