Rosemary Dillon is CEO of Blue Mountains City Council, where COVID-19 has compounded the devastation suffered by communities, businesses and the environment during summer bushfires.

The fires had a devastating impact on our World Heritage surrounding environment (flora and fauna) and on our 27 towns and villages, with 22 homes destroyed, 122 rural landholders significantly affected and about 2600 jobs lost across the Blue Mountains. The environmental, personal and economic effects are still being felt and recovery will take many years, even without the double whammy of coronavirus.

We’ve responded to these crises with some fabulous initiatives, including a mayoral bushfire relief fund that raised $75,000, a mayoral business reference group, many residents recovery meetings, a business outreach program and various community health and wellbeing schemes.

We adopted Penrith Council’s Good Neighbour program, where residents use calling cards to introduce themselves and offer help to neighbours. Then we expanded it, partnering with Rapid Relief Team volunteers to distribute emergency food boxes to those in need, and starting a Pop-up Library @ Home to deliver books and DVDs to vulnerable community members.

While our leisure centres closed, we encouraged people to stay active by offering 800+ free online workouts via Les Mills On Demand. Some of our fitness staff have been providing one-on-one outdoor sessions, ensuring they don’t lose their jobs.

We usually have a thriving arts and culture calendar, but many events were cancelled due to COVID, so our cultural centre launched Virtual Insight – a curated collection of free digital content available online to the whole community. On Mother’s Day, we held a Virtual Marketplace so people could buy local gifts for their mums online.

I’ve been so impressed by the passion, resilience and commitment of our community, response agencies and our Council staff, who have worked tirelessly through challenging times so we can come out stronger on the other side.

We still need further short and long-term assistance from other levels of government, though. Without it, we’re worried not all our businesses will survive and it will take even longer for our community and surrounding World Heritage environment and wildlife to recover.

Rosemary Dillon
Chief Executive Officer
Blue Mountains City Council