Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the tensions that emerge as a result of the many different ways of understanding cyclones and climate change in Far North Queensland, Australia. It will investigate the root causes of these tensions, and how these tensions affect state-led disaster risk reduction.

Paper long abstract:

Every year Far North Queensland, a region in the north east of Australia, experiences a cyclone season between November and April. As a result of this frequency of cyclonic activity, locally formed understandings of cyclones ranging in scope from prediction to recovery, are well established and immensely popular among residents. At the same time, however, disaster management agencies also have a significant presence in this region, and these agencies have their own ways of understanding cyclones, which at times diverge from those that are locally formed. Over the past decade, incidences of severe, maximum strength cyclones have increased, and together with results from studies that find that cyclonic activity is affected by climate change, pose further challenges to how cyclones are understood in this region.

In response to these challenges this paper will explore, firstly, the tensions that emerge as a result of the many different ways of understanding cyclones and climate change, and how this affects state-led disaster risk reduction. And secondly, it will investigate the root causes of these tensions. Based on 15 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Far North Queensland with both local residents and individuals working at disaster management agencies, this paper will provide a range of ethnographic insights that show how such tensions form as a result of certain key factors. Most notably, a lack of awareness of the broader purpose that locally formed understandings of cyclones hold for residents in this region.