Major storm response and recovery exercise honoured at 2026 Resilient Australia Awards
The City of Stirling will vie for a national honour at the 2026 Resilient Australia Awards after winning the Local Government category at this week’s state awards for a large-scale emergency management exercise.
Emergency Services Minister Reece Whitby presented the City with the WA Local Government Award on Monday in recognition of Exercise Dicheall, a multi-agency functional and field exercise that simulated a major storm event.
Held in early May, Exercise Dicheall brought together neighbouring local governments and a wide range of emergency and support organisations, including the Department of Fire and Emergency Services, WA Police Force, State Emergency Service, St John WA, the Department of Communities and more.
It was brought to life by dozens of volunteers from the community who played the roles of those impacted by the emergency.
The two-day exercise involved search and rescue activities, public information management, domestic animal and livestock handling, evacuation centre and relief operations and recovery coordination planning.
Made possible by State Government AWARE grant funding, it was a carefully planned opportunity to test emergency arrangements, strengthen collaboration and identify ways to improve future response and recovery efforts.
A thorough post-exercise evaluation resulted in a series of recommendations for the City across themes such as governance, workforce training and readiness, information management and continuous improvement.
The City has published a public post-exercise report and video and continues to share the lessons learned through Exercise Dicheall with other local governments and partner organisations.
Minister Whitby congratulated the winners of the 2026 Resilient Australia State Awards on their leadership and commitment to building safer, stronger and more robust communities.
The winners of the four state categories – photography, community, local government and government – will now represent WA at the national awards later this year.
“In the face of a changing climate, building resilience is critical to futureproofing the safety of communities throughout our vast state before, during and after natural disasters,” Minister Whitby said.
“The Resilient Australia Awards play an important role in recognising and celebrating initiatives that build this whole-of-community resilience.”
