QFES Volunteerism Strategy Discussion Paper : 2017

What this environment means for QFES

From a Queensland perspective, these risks are exacerbated by a number of external societal and environmental changes. With an estimated resident population of 4.8 million people, Queensland is experiencing growth at a rate of 1.4 percent with overseas migration accounting for 31 per cent 3 of this. A majority of Queensland’s population is concentrated in coastal regions, and the South East corner of Queensland has traditionally “outpaced growth in all other regions.” 4 However, more recently the gap between rural Queensland and South East Queensland migration has started to narrow. 5 While some rural areas are beginning to experience a decline, other peri-urban areas are experiencing rapid population growth. These changes present a number of challenges to local brigades and groups in terms of maintaining service delivery, as well as pre-empting service needs and capabilities. These risks are further compounded by increased severe weather patterns and climatic changes that will have a dramatic impact on future storm and fire season severity and length. These also have the potential to cause significant risk to ongoing emergency service delivery. There has also been a shift in volunteerism trends identifying changes to social and economic conditions that have generally led to people becoming increasingly time-poor. This has affected their availability and willingness to commit to traditional models of volunteering. Instead, there is a preference to support smaller project- based volunteering or roles that can adapt to their lifestyle needs. For QFES this has been most noticeable in attracting and retaining the next generation of volunteers for the department.

3. Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2016). Population growth, Queensland, June quarter 2016. Released 15 December 2016. http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/products/reports/pop-growth-qld/pop-growth-qld-201606.pdf Website viewed 14.03.2017 4. Queensland Government Statistician’s Office (QGSO), Queensland Treasury, Population growth highlights and trends, Queensland, 2016 edition. http://www.qgso.qld.gov.au/products/reports/pop-growth-highlights-trends-qld/pop-growth- highlights-trends-qld-2016-edn.pdf Website viewed 14.03.2017 5. Ibid.

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olunteerism Strategy Discussion Paper : 2017

Queensland Fire and Emergency Services