Apr 01, 2026

Public workspaceFIRE TO FLOURISH: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING SURVEY

This protocol is a draft, published without a DOI.
  • Revathi Krishna1,
  • Jane F Fisher1,
  • Thach Tran1,
  • Julie Willems2,
  • Karan Varshney3,
  • Bhiamie Williamson4,
  • Mellissa Kavenagh2,
  • Mikila Sharkie5,
  • Hau Nguyen1
  • 1Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine;
  • 2Monash University School of Rural Health;
  • 3Monash University;
  • 4Monash University Faculty of Arts;
  • 5Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust
Revathi Krishna
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Protocol Citation: Revathi Krishna, Jane F Fisher, Thach Tran, Julie Willems, Karan Varshney, Bhiamie Williamson, Mellissa Kavenagh, Mikila Sharkie, Hau Nguyen 2026. FIRE TO FLOURISH: COMMUNITY HEALTH AND WELLBEING SURVEY. protocols.io https://protocols.io/view/fire-to-flourish-community-health-and-wellbeing-su-jw3pcpgmp
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,  which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: March 31, 2026
Last Modified: April 01, 2026
Protocol Integer ID: 314191
Keywords: Bushfires, Survey, Mental Health, wellbeing survey, bushfire, psychological wellbeing, fire, quality of life, east gippsland, healthcare needs of people, health, healthcare need, life, tenterfield local government area, survey the objective
Funders Acknowledgements:
Paul Ramsay Foundation
Metal Manufactures Pty Ltd
Abstract
The objective is to describe the health, psychological wellbeing, quality of life and healthcare needs of people living in East Gippsland, Clarence Valley, Eurobodalla and Tenterfield Local Government Area (LGA), five years after the 2019–2020 bushfires.
Guidelines
SRC, the third-party panel survey company adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1 Level AA. Their online templates have received a Statement of Accessibility from Vision Australia which credited the considerable effort in creating a technically accessible survey platform.
Materials
Householder response to the February 7^^th bushfires survey, Brief Solastalgia Scale, Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R), 12-item Short Form Survey (SF-12)
Troubleshooting
Safety warnings
f you would like more information about the survey and what participants are asked to do, please read the information sheet that is enclosed. If you have further questions, please email [email protected]
Ethics statement
Fire to Flourish's Health and Wellbeing survey has been approved by Monash University's Human Research Ethics Committee (ID# 39180) and by AH&MRC (2358.24).
Before start
Fire to Flourish's Health and Wellbeing survey has been approved by Monash University's Human Research Ethics Committee (ID# 39180) and by AH&MRC (2358.24).
PARTICIPANTS AND RECRUITMENT
We sought advice from the Aboriginal communities and organisations we consulted during the development of the survey about ensuring good representation of Aboriginal community members. In line with their suggestion, the team will travel to local Aboriginal communities and organisations (e.g., Moogji and Lake Tyers) to collect data using Indigenous data collection methods, such as yarning circles (Kennedy, et al., 2022). These methods also follow the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS, 2020) guidelines of respecting culture and peoples and ensuring free, prior and informed consent.
Further, In East Gippsland, there are members of the community who work for Fire to Flourish. With the support of these Fire to Flourish staff, we will create a campaign to promote the survey. We will also use social media, local radio and local newspaper and newsletters at the local Neighbourhood Houses to raise awareness about the survey. Finally, as advised in many of our community consultations, we will also run ‘Survey Days’ for those who might prefer to fill the survey out in an in-person individual interview.
In every format, a plain language summary will be provided with information about the survey and the consent process. In digital formats and paper formats, at the end of the plain language summary, the individual will have the option to stop participating and exit the survey or provide their consent and proceed to fill out the survey. For telephone and in-person surveys, their consent will be sought verbally and where appropriate their consent will be audio recorded.
SAMPLE SIZE
Probability Proportional Sampling, usually known as probability proportional to size (PPS; Israel, 1992) sampling has been used to determine a meaningful sample size for this survey. Given this, a minimum of 500 complete individual responses from East Gippsland is required to answer the research questions.
SURVEY DEVELOPMENT AND INSTRUMENTS
Five sources of evidence have informed the Health and Wellbeing Survey.
Consultations with representative of Aboriginal researchers, organisations and members of the broader Fire to Flourish community teams to ensure that any gaps in consideration of their needs are made apparent.
Systematic Reviews of literature on mental health of people after bushfires and drought (Varshney et al., 2023) and factors that promote resilience in a community affected by disasters.
Prior surveys conducted in the aftermath of a bushfire informed specific domains that needed to be investigated. Ten post-disaster surveys were conducted in Australia that mapped/included questions on health-related impacts and are included in the development of the Community Health and Wellbeing Survey.
Community Consultations: To ensure that the process of survey was co-designed with the community, we conducted multiple community consultations. We started with semi-structured interviews with members from the study LGAs, to determine key themes and domains to prioritise in our research. These interviews also provided guidance regarding how to ask questions in a culturally safe manner, how to effectively reach different population groups, and how to structure the overall survey. A separate manuscript that details the results of these interviews is currently in preparation. Once a first draft of the survey was developed, multiple rounds of community consultations were undertaken to pilot the survey.
Lived Experiences: Lived experience of recent bushfires and disaster events has also informed the survey development, including the content areas, survey structure and language.
The Community Health and Wellbeing Survey has 11 domains including: ‘individual characteristics’, ‘experiences of the disaster’, ‘experiences of other disasters’, ‘experiences of government assistance’, ‘experiences of health services’, ‘relationships with the environment around you, others in your community, recovery and disaster preparedness’, ‘emotional wellbeing and general health’, and ‘perspective towards life 6 wellbeing after the 2019-2020 bushfires’, (with a separate section for contact details). Previously used published survey instruments, and modified as needed, in relevant sections of the survey.
Survey Instruments:
Australian Census: National survey conducted every four years by the Australia Government of all Australian residents for the purposes of understanding the demographic characteristics of the nation, with questions focusing on the social, economic, and cultural factors influencing of Australian life. Questions related to age, country where birth occurred, religion, linguistics, employment, education, and ethnicity have been used. Published and publicly available.
Beyond Bushfires survey: The Beyond Bushfire survey (Gibbs et al., 2013) was administered for the purposes of measuring the impacts of the 2009 Victorian bushfires at both individual and community level. It was developed with a focus across specific themes: bushfire exposure and impact, demographics, wellbeing, physical health, community attitudes, relationships with organisations, social networks, mental health and related behaviour and is publicly available. Specific survey items included questions about general health, depression, resilience, community cohesion, and social networks have been used. There were no questions about the experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Published and publicly available.
Mayi Kuwayu Survey: The Mayi Kuwayu survey (Jones, 2018 26 MK Study, 2023) is a national survey on the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and aims to understand how wellbeing is linked to culture and cultural strength. Questions focus on demographic characteristics, the role of culture, language, community involvement, health status, amount of exercise, racism, and experiences with healthcare. The survey has been developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and can be completed by any Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander person aged 16 years or above. Published and questions can be used with a specific licence and payment of a fee, which has been done.
Householder response to the February 7^^th bushfires survey (Natural Hazards Research Australia, formerly known as Bushfire and Natural Hazards Cooperative Research Centre and RMIT University): This survey, which was created on behalf of Australian emergency service and fire agencies, was developed for the purposes of improving community bushfire safety (RMIT University, 2009). The survey provides questions of the direct impacts of bushfires to individuals and to their property, information received before and during fires, planning/preparation prior to the fires, actions during the fires, experiences defending property from fire, and demographic information. The survey has been published and is publicly available.
Brief Solastalgia Scale: Solastalgia refers to environment-induced distress, particularly connected to how change in the environment might produce negative feelings. Solastalgia is “the distress that is produced by environmental change impacting on people while they are directly connected to their home environment” (Albrecht, et al., 2007). The Brief Solastalgia Scale provides a snapshot of the individuals’ feelings of distress due to the changes in their local environment via 5 statements rated on a 5-point scale from ‘1 – strongly agree’ to ‘5 – strongly disagree’, with an additional option of ‘does not apply’. Published and publicly available.
Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R): The IES-R is an instrument designed to evaluate levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms (Weiss 26 Marmar, 1997). Though the IES-R is best for recent/specific events causing trauma, the instrument has the capability to be used multiple times over long periods to evaluate changes in symptoms. The instrument has 22 questions, with a total subjective stress scale and three subscales on intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. IES-R is published and publicly available.
12-item Short Form Survey (SF-12): The SF-12 (Ware, Kosinski, 26 Keller, 1996) is a questionnaire that asks questions on general health, also drawing on both physical and mental health. Questions specifically measure general health levels, physical capability to complete tasks, emotional disturbances, pain, level of energy, and impacts of health on social activity. SF-12 is published and publicly available.
PILOTING AND IMPLEMENTATION
In order to finalise the survey, multiple rounds of community consultations were undertaken. Since the development of the survey involved community consultations, we approached both communities as well as experts – researchers and practitioners, to finalise the survey. Once the first draft was developed, we sent the survey out to researchers within the Fire to Flourish team to provide feedback on it. Specifically, we sought advice from our Aboriginal colleagues around the content, structure and language in the survey and took it back to them for feedback, as an iterative process. For example: we specifically included important questions such as whether they currently live on Country, what Country they are currently living on, whether there was a community, mob or language group they identified with?, specific cultural and spiritual losses suffered in the 2019-2020 bushfires, and impact of environment surrounding them on their wellbeing, among other questions that specifically aims at understanding access to health care and support services, and discrimination to specifically understand Aboriginal peoples experiences and how these have impacted their health and wellbeing.
Then, this updated version of the survey was taken to colleagues in Monash Rural Health and surrounding neighbourhood houses and community representatives to give us feedback on. We updated the survey further, took back to our research colleagues, and took it back to the community of East Gippsland. These included East Gippsland Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) of Moogji, and Lake Tyers Health and Children’s Services, several remote Bush Nursing Centres, and various local Neighbourhood Houses. Each iteration and recommended changes along with decisions have been recorded.
ACCESSIBILITY
SRC, the third-party panel survey company adheres to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Version 2.1 Level AA. Their online templates have received a Statement of Accessibility from Vision Australia which credited the considerable effort in creating a technically accessible survey platform.
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Analysis Plan
1.1. Analysis Plan
For the first research question, general health, mental health and wellbeing data will be summarised by using means (standard deviation) or frequencies (percentages) where appropriate. Graphs will be used to visually describe the results for each of the outcomes.
For the second research question, the relationships between the experiences of the bushfire and health outcomes (general health, psychological wellbeing) and quality of life will be examined using multiple regression models. These modelling analyses will take into account socio-demographic characteristics including age, urban/regional/ remote, household composition, and gender, and health service access and financial aid.
For the third research question, the mediating effects community social and economic characteristics on the impacts of the 2019-2020 bushfires on health, psychological wellbeing and quality of life will be determined by adding interaction terms between community social, economic characteristics and the bushfire experiences in the models described in the analyses of research question 2. 
Missing data will be treated using the pairwise deletion method. The analyses will be conducted using Stata Version 18.
Ethics and Dissemination
Permission to implement this survey has been sought from the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee and Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council (AH&MRC).
The ethics relevant to this survey are:
Voluntary and informed consent to participate. Participants will be informed about the nature and purpose of the survey through a plain language explanation and will have the opportunity to ask for more information through a study email which will be closely monitored during the recruitment phase. Completion of the survey is entirely voluntary, and no-one is obliged to complete it. For potential participants who are not confident in reading the plain language statement, we will hold survey days in community centres where an oral explanation of the study can be given and people can complete it with the assistance of a trained research assistant.
Protection of privacy and confidentiality. Individual invitations will be sent to all households with a postal address and people can make an independent and private decision about whether they want to participate. The survey is completely anonymous and no individually identifying information is collected. Participants are asked to ensure that they do not write their name on the survey. Only summary data from which no individual could be identified will ever be published.
Risks to participants. The information being sought in the survey is of relevance and interest to people living in the East Gippsland Local Government Area. We do not believe that there are significant risks associated with completing the survey. We acknowledge that in addition to inconvenience there might be some discomfort in being asked questions about their experiences during and following the bushfires. We expect that respondents might see the survey as an opportunity to express their opinions and be heard. The survey is divided into sections, at the beginning of each section, the participants will be told the topics of questions that are coming up. Participants will be told that they can stop and re-start the online survey where they left off at any time. This will also be pointed out when participants are completing the survey on the phone or on in-person. We will provide information including contact numbers for mental health and physical health concerns, and accessible, fee free local services for those seeking professional assistance.
Data Storage: The anonymous data will be transferred to Monash from the Social Research Centre and stored on a secure password-protected Monash University S:/ drive, in accordance with the requirements of the Monash University Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research. Data will be retained at Monash University for at least seven years from the date of any publication which is based upon the data, and then destroyed in accordance with the University protocols.
Payment: No data including personal information, for example the respondent’s address to receive the $30 voucher given in respectful recognition of their time will be transferred to Monash. This process will be managed by the Social Research Centre and the address deleted after the voucher has been sent. Some respondents will indicate that they want to receive a summary of the data. The SRC will provide Monash with a list of the email or postal addresses of these people which could not be linked in any way to the dataset.
Indigenous Data Sovereignty: We are committed to Indigenous Data Sovereignty. We will consult communities about the format in which they would like their data made available, including in summary format or as a summary report. The findings of the survey will be returned to the community to assist in development and recovery efforts at a local level. Community members, and organisations will be consulted prior to determining what kind of data visualisation and dissemination is the most accessible / useful to them.  It will be also disseminated to different levels of government – local and state to inform policy reform for health service provision before/during/after disasters, in regional communities. At least one manuscript will be prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed journal, as well as opportunities to disseminate the findings at public health, academic and disaster management conferences and related forums.
Return of Data: Data will be returned to the communities to non-Indigenous communities and organisations following similar principles to the Indigenous Data Sovereignty, i.e. communities will be consulted and data will be returned to them in the form that is most useful/ accessible to them.
Discussion
This protocol describes a survey on the ongoing health and wellbeing impacts of the 2019-2020 bushfires in local community settings. Our approach offers important contributions to the literature as it integrates the insights, and experiences of bushfire affected residents regarding the findings of the survey and the survey methodology. Therefore, these findings offer utility in several ways. The survey findings will serve as a tool to highlight the health, psychological wellbeing and quality of life of people in East Gippsland. Furthermore, they will offer utility in guiding policy development, and resource allocation to those impacted by disasters, such as the 2019-2020 bushfires. The survey development and implementation also exemplify the ways in which participatory approaches can be used in designing a population-wide survey in disaster affected communities. This is especially pertinent in consideration of the difficulties of integrating community-based participatory research approaches, which have been described in the past (Krishnan, Tandon, & Nongkynrih, 2020). Lastly, our approach will uniquely offer insights regarding the concurrent, local impacts of both the 2019-2020 bushfires, and the isolating lockdown measures during the earliest parts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This quantitative survey will not provide individuals with the means to describe their experiences and hardships in their own words. An additional, notable limitation is that it will be difficult to reach certain populations, such as linguistic minorities and those who have limited literacy levels. Nevertheless, this limitation is mitigated by opening the survey up to be filled in-person in those hard-to-reach communities and via a telephone conversation. The findings of this survey can potentially be used to guide the future development of qualitative studies, which the holistic Fire to Flourish program will seek to conduct.
In conclusion, our work seeks to understand – at a community level - the lasting impacts of the 2019-2020 Bushfires. These findings may potentially serve as important advocacy tools, provide insights for policy development and resource allocation, and serve as guidance for future research. In doing so, this work can improve the well-being for those who have been most deeply impacted by these natural hazard events.
Protocol references
Lykins et al., 2023; Rodney et al., 2021; Gibbs et al., 2016; Zhang et al., 2022; Maiam Nayri Wingara Indigenous Data Sovereignty Collective, 2018; Walter et al., 2018; Kennedy et al., 2022; AIATSIS, 2020; Israel, 1992; Varshney et al., 2023; Albrecht et al., 2007; Weiss 26 Marmar, 1997; Ware, Kosinski, 26 Keller, 1996
Acknowledgements
We’d like to acknowledge and thank the First Nations peoples who contributed their wisdom and helped us design the survey that reflected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ experiences, strengths and priorities. We would like to thank the members of the community, without whom this survey could not have been developed and we are grateful for their engagement and contribution to the survey. We would like to thank Prof. Briony Rogers, the CEO of Fire to Flourish for supporting this research. Prof. Wickes and Dr. Evans who contributed to the development of the survey, Dr. Keating who reviewed the survey and contributed to the initial creation of the survey and all Fire to Flourish researchers and community teams who reviewed, provided feedback and engaged in many conversations regarding the survey throughout its development.

Acknowledgment of Aboriginal colleagues, Monash Rural Health, East Gippsland Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs) of Moogji, and Lake Tyers Health and Children’s Services, several remote Bush Nursing Centres, and various local Neighbourhood Houses.