The presentation will focus on the use of social media in operational response and co-ordination in remote areas. The NSW RFS Far West Team manages an enormous area of 260,000 square kilometres, which covers the districts of Cobar, Central Darling, Unincorporated Area of NSW, Bourke and Brewarrina. Due to the size and demographics of the area, staff and volunteers have had to develop new strategies to assist in coordination of fire fighting response, in an effort to overcome the challenges presented by limited communications and scarce fire fighting resources.

The past three years of high rainfall led to a massive increase in the fire danger in the Far West. The remote Barrier Range Brigade, located north of Broken Hill, recognised this danger and began using a closed Facebook page as a means of communicating with their members, neighbours and NSW RFS staff. This innovation has shown to be an invaluable communication tool for a remote rural brigade without a radio system and limited phone coverage.

There has been enormous interest shown in this use of social media by other NSW RFS brigades and also by the academic world. A second brigade has now set up their own closed Facebook group which is also operating successfully as a means of providing an information flow between the volunteer fire fighters and NSW RFS staff. A recent article for the recent Bushfire Bulletin led to a request from Associate Professor Katina Michael (University of Wollongong) for permission to publish the article in the IEEE Technology and Society magazine and to collaborate further on the topic in the future.

The volunteer NSW RFS administrators of the Barrier Range Facebook page would be willing to attend the Conference to participate in the presentation.