A township group has jumped at the opportunity to create a series of fun and engaging community education films to help people tackle weather events in their areas.
The Montrose Township group has brought several community groups in the Yarra Ranges area together to create educational support and preparation films to share online to prepare for big weather events.
Montrose Township Group Chelsey Cooper member said the group are rapt with how the videos came out and especially pleased to hear how well they are being received both in their community and beyond.
“We have an active social media presence and will be sharing videos at relevant times of the year, when big weather events are imminent,” she said.
Recently, the group shared the storm and generator check videos ahead of high winds predicted.
“It will be a great tool to use to remind people of the things we need to do to prepare for, and recover together from weather events,” said Ms Cooper.
Looking for ways to stay connected and support each other before and after big weather events, Ms Cooper said the resilience committee arm of their group jumped at the chance to apply for an Ausnet grant, taking the opportunity to create the education films.
“When big weather events happen, we’re going to need one another to help navigate through some of the challenges that arise,” she said.
“The icing on the cake was that we were able to engage a fabulous production company whose Co-Founder is a Montrose local – MOO – to produce the films.”
The series of short films will help residents prepare for weather-related emergencies and power outages, they’re engaging and have a little comedy sprinkled here and there. Locals will recognise people from CFA, SES, local primary school and more (even the local Montrose butcher appears).
The four short films focused on storms, heat waves, generator maintenance and the towns action plan MAMAM, which stands for Meet at Montrose at Midday.
Ms Cooper said the group on weather events because storms and heat waves are becoming more common.
“It brings with it the risk of prolonged power outages, which can have a significant impact on us, and especially those who live with vulnerabilities,” she said.
Within the films, each topic addresses preparation activities unique to the event and they share key messages.
“Look out for yourselves and each other, check on your neighbours, and stay informed using trusted sources like VicEmergency and AusNet Power Outage tracker, and a reminder that if our community experiences widespread power outages lasting over 24 hours – MAMAM,” said Ms Cooper.
MAMAM was born after the June 2021 storms, when most of Montrose lost power for nearly a week; some areas of town were out for much longer.
“We noticed people gathered at the local shops, even when most of the shops were out of power too,” said Ms Cooper.
“When power is out and telecommunications are down, we need a central point to gather to share information in person,” she said.
“So when our community experiences a widespread power outage lasting more than 24 hours, someone will be at the noticeboard by the bakery at midday to share information updates and collect information to share with relevant emergency services – hence, Meet at Montrose at Midday – MAMAM.”
Filming was a lot of fun, and Ms Cooper said a lot of the preparation was nailing down the key messages for each film, recruiting the talent and scoping film locations.
“We deliberately chose a mix of community group and local business representation, working to ensure we captured a cross-section of our wonderful community,” she said.
Filmmaker MOO got to work, and Ms Cooper said the group thought they did a fabulous job, and we were blown away by the local talent.
“We didn’t know there were so many great actors in our community!” she said.
Community will no doubt see the films shared throughout the year and can enjoy the weather prep and safety messages curated by their very own for years to come.
