Early Insights for More Resilient Communities

Rural, regional and remote communities can experience rapid shifts in resilience during and after events like drought, bushfire, flood, storms, or economic shocks. Yet, community leaders often lack timely data to guide decisions - relying instead on anecdotal evidence.

The Early Insights for More Resilient Communities project addresses this gap by providing up-to-date, localised data to help communities track resilience over time and identify early warning signs of stress.

About the project

At the heart of the project is an online dashboard offering annually updated data on resilience indicators at the local government area (LGA) level. It helps communities monitor how resilience changes in response to events like drought, flood, bushfire, storm, pandemic and economic downturn.

NSW Pilot (2023–2024)

The Early Insights project started in 2023 in NSW, with a pilot project funded through the Southern NSW Innovation Hub as part of the Australian Government’s Agricultural Innovation Hubs Program.

In 2024, the Early Insights dashboard for NSW, containing data for non-metropolitan NSW local government areas, was launched.

communityresilienceinsights.com.au

Early Insights Dashboard

An online dashboard of resilience resources in regional NSW communities (pilot) that provides valuable insights and early warning signals to help key services and support agencies respond sooner to community needs and mitigate the impacts of cumulative climate events.

Use the Early Insights for More Resilient Communities Dashboard

National Expansion (2025–2026)

Building on the NSW pilot’s success, the project is expanding in 2025 and 2026 to:

Update and extend NSW indicators, and
Launch new pilots in Northern Territory, Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria.

Read the project information sheet to find out more

Project lead

University of Canberra (Wellbeing and Resilience Unit)

Project partners

Southern NSW Innovation Hub
Northern Hub
South-West WA Hub
TAS Farm Innovation Hub
Vic Hub

Project funding

The Early Insights for More Resilient Communities Dashboard 2025 project received funding from the Australian Government through the Future Drought Fund.

Learn more

Learn more about prioritising resilience indicators and read the full research report from 2024, including appendices.

Read the impact case study to find out how Alpine Valleys Community Leadership uses the Early Insights for More Resilient Communities dashboard to turn abstract concepts like resilience into something tangible and actionable.