Gawler River flood awareness and preparedness
The Department for Environment and Water (DEW) has partnered with the Gawler River Floodplain Management Authority (GRFMA) and SA State Emergency Service (SA SES) to develop flood awareness and preparedness campaign materials for the Gawler River region.
Jointly funded by the South Australian government, project partners, and the Australian Government’s Disaster Ready Fund, this initiative aims to improve community resilience to flooding.
The Gawler River floods on average once every ten years, with the most recent flood in 2016 causing an estimated $51 million in losses to agricultural businesses and significant damage to infrastructure.
Despite this, recent community research commissioned by DEW has shown that community awareness and preparedness is generally low, with only 10% of participants reporting they have a written flood plan.
To inform and support the community to be better prepared for floods, the flood awareness and preparedness materials developed as part of this project will build on existing SA SES, Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) and DEW resources.
This project is being delivered in two stages - the first stage focusing on community engagement and the second stage on campaign development. View the 2025 Gawler River flood awareness and preparedness - project overview (pdf).
Project updates
From late July to mid-August 2025, stakeholder engagement specialist Strategic Matters conducted targeted interviews with key stakeholders and facilitated focus groups across the Gawler River region.
Throughout the process, they engaged with a wide range of community members, including Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and First Nations groups. Read a summary of what we heard.
This community engagement was undertaken to inform the development of the flood awareness and preparedness campaign materials to ensure they effectively:
- raise awareness of flood risk in the area
- support the understanding of SA SES and BoM flood messages and warnings
- encourage action and preparedness using existing SA SES tools.
The second stage of the project is currently underway to develop the flood awareness and preparedness campaign materials. Development of the materials will be informed by insights gathered through the community engagement process.
Delivery of the materials is scheduled for completion by the end of March 2026. Once finalised, these materials will be provided to project partners - the GRFMA, SA SES and local councils - for distribution to the community.
Contact
Email: DEWFloodProjects@sa.gov.au
