Projects

Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS)

Background

The SEWS is a distinctive audio signal that has been adopted to alert the community to the broadcast of an urgent safety message relating to a major emergency/disaster. It is intended for use as an alert signal to be played on public media (such as radio, television, public address systems, mobile sirens), to draw listeners' attention to a following emergency warning. It is meant to attract listeners' attention to the fact that they should take notice of the emergency message.

Brief History of the SEWS

The Commonwealth, States, and Territories identified the need for a national emergency warning signal in 1983. In 1985 Emergency Management Australia (then, the Natural Disaster Organisation) developed, through the National Acoustic Laboratories, a distinctive sound known as the Standard Emergency Warning Signal (SEWS).

The Bureau of Meteorology developed a signal in the early 1970s for use by Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Western Australia to precede tropical cyclone warning messages to the public. Due to the signal's universal use within cyclone-prone areas, and in the interests of uniformity, the remaining States and the Australian Capital Territory agreed to adopt the signal for use as a national emergency warning signal. Following an approach from EMA, the Bureau of Meteorology granted approval for it to be used nationally on 11 May 1995. On 21 May 1995, the then National Emergency Management Committee formally endorsed the use of the signal as the Standard Emergency Warning Signal for Australia.

It was intended that EMA would then produce national guidelines for its use across a range of hazards. These guidelines reached draft stage before it became apparent that they would need to vary in each State to cater for differences in legislation, population distribution and the range of hazards. Subsequently, each State and Territory developed their own set of guidelines for the use of the SEWS, to cater for differences in legislation, population distribution and the range of hazards.

In September 2004, the Australian Emergency Management Committee (AEMC) supported a recommendation from the Bureau of Meteorology that a set of clear, prescriptive and nationally consistent guidelines for the use and application of SEWS should be developed, to give direction and support to State/Territory Emergency Management Authorities. As most hazard events are of weather related origin or are exacerbated by 'weather', the Bureau of Meteorology undertook the task and collaborated with State and Territory Emergency Services to prepare national guidelines for the use of the SEWS.

Listen to the Standard Emergency Warning Signal [Wave 706Kb]

Indigenous Weather Knowledge Website Project

Seasonal weather calendars, developed over thousands of years by Indigenous communities, are displayed on the Bureau of Meteorology Indigenous Weather Knowledge website. The calendars recognise the complexity and diversity of weather over the Australian continent and are finely tuned to local conditions and natural events. Unlike the European spring, summer, autumn and winter, the Indigenous versions include often five, and sometimes seven, distinct seasons.

The site is in its early stages of development and will be progressively expanded to include information for additional areas, as well as other facets of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander interactions with, and knowledge of, weather and climate.

The website is the result of a joint effort involving the Indigenous communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), the Bureau of Meteorology, and Monash University's Centre for Australian Indigenous Studies (CAIS) and School of Geography and Environmental Science.

IWK - Indigenous Weather Knowledge Website
Indigenous weather warning (IWW) report

Non English Speaking Households (NESH) Effective Weather Warning

The Non English Speaking Households (NESH) effective weather warning project is a collaboration between the Bureau of Meteorology, the James Cook University Centre for Disaster Studies (JCU) and many Multicultural Organisations. The aim of the project is to develop printable multilingual information on destructive winds, fire weather and flood weather, so recent arrivals will have some background information and safety-oriented 'how-to' guidance.