Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority
In 2009 the Australian state of Victoria suffered at the hands of one of the country’s greatest natural disasters. Saturday February 7th, 2009 is now imprinted into the Australian psyche as “Black Saturday”; the day fire storms swept the Victorian countryside destroying 2029 homes and claiming 173 human lives. One of the most devastated communities was the mountain village of Marysville who was subject to almost total destruction.
In the aftermath of this tragedy, the community of Marysville was faced with the task of rebuilding their town. The Local Council had ideas in place of how to best approach the task, however, they knew that for the rebuilding to be successful and hold through the future they required community feedback and input.
Community engagement
In conjunction with Axial Australia, NeoProducts worked with the Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority (VBRRA), to donate kiosks for a community feedback solution. These kiosks allowed visitors and local residents to view updates on the proposed changes for Marysville whilst giving them the opportunity to provide their feedback on specific segments.The indoor and outdoor kiosks provided:
- Updates, visual and standard written, on community project status.
- Visual interaction with proposed plans for Marysville projects, with residents being able to drill down into segments of proposed civic projects and provide their views on proposed changes.
- Visitors to the township could see what is being planned via the touch screen presentation.
- Visitors answered a brief survey on why, when and how they have been involved with Marysville.
- Local businesses could promote themselves and offer printed vouchers.
- 24 hour access in community accessible locations
Rebuilding
The project provided the local council the ability to keep the community informed, gauge the community’s views and gain support for proposed changes to the area.
Neo’s ability to provide kiosks that were easy and intuitive to use, could be placed indoors or out, and which required minimal support was integral to the success of the project to share information. Capturing the opinions of the community for the rebuilding of this beautiful bushland community.