Our Environment

Natural Hazards

Natural hazards such as bushfire, flood, storms and coastal hazards can threaten lives, property, infrastructure, the community and industries, and our natural environment.

We play a role in helping individuals and communities, businesses and governments to manage the risks they face from exposure and their vulnerability to natural hazards.  We also work to understand and plan for them, including with Climate Change.  And to manage the risks and oppoprtunities for Council, and the municipality’s community, economy and environmental values.

We are part of the national networks for Emergency Management, Response, Recovery and Resilience.  Working with the State Emergengcy Service (SES) and their services, such as TasAlert.  Council also has a responsibility through Tasmania’s Planning System to reduce future risks, and avoid land use and development putting lives, important infrastructure, property, our economy and the environment at risk.

We’ll progressively add more Natural Hazards content here over time.

The beaches, dunes, rocky headlands, tidal reefs and estuaries we treasure are shaped by coastal processes, powerful forces of nature between land and sea. Shorelines erode and retreat and expand with deposited sediments.  Tides can inundate land with storm winds and waves and sometimes combined with effects of floodwaters from inland.

Climate change is projected to change these processes and the coastal hazards they can pose. More intense and frequent extreme weather events and gradual sea level rise under storm events will and mean the coastlines we visit and like to live by will change. Coping and adapting to coastal hazards can be in terms on protection, accommodating them, and retreat (or not being in their way in the first place).

Council has roles in sharing coastal hazard information, planning to avoid the risks and loss, emergency management, helping the municipality address coastal risks and adaptation, and engaging with the state national governments in coastal hazard management.

We must also manage the risks to our assets and services like roads and stormwater drianage when they are exposed and vulnerable to coastal hazards.  Similarly, residents, businesses, the community and users of coastal open spaces and other governments and agencies, such as the Parks and Wildlife Service who manages most coastal land and habitats, Taswater and Building Tasmania, face coastal hazard risks of their own.

We all share a responsibility to manage our own risks and adapt to uncertain and increasing coastal hazards.  Which means we share the challenge of adapting to coastal hazards with climate change.

Coastal Hazards Information

 

 

 

Scientists from the the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and Climate Futures Tasmania (both at UTas) came to St Helens on 18 June 2026 with a community information evening.

Around 30 people attended presentations and joined in discussion on a tide gauge project in Georges Bay and sea level rise risks, and on the Natural Hazards Atlas Tasmania.

Karen Palmer shared findings from a tide gauge project that included Georges Bay, research into future sea level rise, its implications for the Bay and coastal hazard risks.  We also heard from Annabel Bowden from the Climate Futures team on current work developing the Natural Hazards Atlas, an online resource.

Georges Bay has significant fisheries, settlement and community values around it and flooding from the catchment meets tides, storms and future sea level rise.  Discussion during the evening is helping inform a case study being prepeared for the Natural Hazards Atlas Tasmania.

Slides from the two presentations can be viewed and downloaded with the links below.  There is also an audio recording of the presentations (but not discussion).  And links to access the report and data from the Tasmania tide monitoring project ( which included three gauges at Georges Bay) and the Natural Hazards Atlas project.