The Deans Marsh and District Post Emergency SMS List is to ensure that all in the extended Deans Marsh community remain well connected in the period after a major fire emergency.
We all know we had what was for us, a lucky summer in 2015/2016, when the Wye River fires were only one wind change away. After that good luck, the committees of the Deans Marsh Community Cottage and Community Asset Committee, decided that the time had come to try to build a comprehensive Mobile Phone Number Master List which includes all the names and contact details of all those full time and part time residents in the extended Deans Marsh, Bambra, Murroon and Pennyroyal communities who wish to participate.
In building this SMS Master List, your are seeking to build on the experience of the Strathewen community in Murrindindi Shire in the Black Saturday 2009 fires. Research after the fires in that region showed that after the fires, in small but varied communities like ours, people were already well connected through their various community organisations, and this cohesion was vital for the recovery phase. While the extended Deans Marsh community is reasonably well connected, we need to build that cohesion further.
Research also shows that, very quickly after the fires, all Strathewen community members were provided with the same information directly using SMS. This was essential, as everyone came to rely on that source of iinformation as trustworthy. To have such trust in information is of course vital, in such difficult and often traumatic circumstances. Because infrastructure is so often disrupted, and many people are away from their homes, and thus from home-based computer systems, SMS was found to be the preferred and most reliable method to communicate with everyone at the same time about relief efforts, meetings and information sessions.
Please be assured that the Master List will be held by the two committees for use in communicating with residents after a fire emergency only, not in place of existing CFA apps and other fire warning
systems, and not for the regular distribution of our many other community notices and newsletters. Nor will the list be passed to any other person, business, or government agency.
In order to compile the list, we ask that you advise your details the DM SMS List – FORM – 22/23 and return it to the Cottage via email to [email protected] or at 10 Pennyroyal Valley Road, Deans Marsh.
The Cottage will manage the list as well as the SMS software.
As we are endeavoring to have this list in place for the next fire season, we ask that you forward the information relating to your household ASAP by Friday 9th December 2022.
The system will be tested in mid-December 2022, a date will be communicated via the Cottage eNewsletter, The Croaker & Cottage social media channels.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the P.E. SMS List, please contact:
The Cottage Coordinator, Caroline Shelbourne on
P| 03 5236 3388
M| 0499 851 334
E | [email protected]
E | [email protected].