Designing Together for Uncertainty: Cam Davies speaks at 2026 PIA Conference

Practice Partner Cameron Davies recently spoke at the 2026 QLD PIA State Conference in Cairns on the topic of designing for uncertainty, touching on his experience in climate adaption and disaster recovery work in the NSW Northern Rivers region and Grantham. His presentation is reproduced below.

 

The complexity of climate adaption is defined by a range of competing interests, values, specialist, as well as, stakeholder group viewpoints. Putting on blinkers and solving only one part of the problem can create poor solutions overall.  This presentation explores collaborative processes at the intersection of constraint and intention in communities recovering from natural disaster.  Check your ego at the door and prepare to be knocked around.

So I reckon if a planner, a designer, and an engineer walked into a bar….  the planner would walk in first since they had the booking, the Engineer would have scoped out all the emergency exits, and the designer would be late and insist they take the corner banquette with the nice mood lighting.  All ingredients for a successful, safe, and fun night out, I just hope there’s a generous client in the wings to pick up the hefty bill. The point is that every discipline brings its own sensibilities and ways of looking at the world.  Like most nights out, successful projects are also made so by teams that value each member’s different knowledge and contribution while remaining curious about what could be.

Having spent most of my career participating in various forms of workshops, charettes and enquiry by design processes I have been lucky to witness and experience the vast array of approaches that stir the boiling pot of collaboration and creativity.  More recently that has taken me into the realm of disaster recovery and the relocation of communities following severe natural disasters.  One thing I have learnt from those experiences is that tight and meaningful collaboration is not just helpful but a necessity when you are tackling the recovery of a community and the time pressure that comes with that.

Relocation, or managed retreat as it is more popularly know, can be a measured and systematic response to changes in climate and the risk it places housing and business in.  Unfortunately, it often finds itself as a disaster recovery activity in the wake of a severe event that immediately displaces a large portion of a community.  These aren’t people who thought they would be in the housing market that year, or perhaps ever, not the “assertive buyers” that agents look for.  Sadly, these communities are often already facing a number of challenges, not least of which is cost of housing.  Delivery teams responding to these circumstances are often offering to relocate people who do not want to be relocated and do not have the means to fund that even in part.  Post event they may be living in a partially destroyed house, so speed of delivery is essential.  Their situation is untenable and that pressure is felt by the teams doing the delivery.

Now I love a good process, but this is one instances when the process must be as quick an effective as possible.  This of cause is where trust and collaboration comes into its own.

So what does that look like?

Grantham

Grantham is a small rural town located west of Brisbane, in the Lockyer Valley.  It became the single most devastated community of the January 2011 floods in Queensland, with lives lost and homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair. Within its region over 2798 homes were inundated with 119 having major damage including being swept away.  If you have ever been knocked down by a freak wave at the beach, you can imagine how much water force it takes to pick up an entire house and throw it into a neighboring paddock.

In Grantham and Murphies Creek 16 people lost their lives. In an Australian-first, the Lockyer Valley Regional Council gave flood affected residents the option to move themselves and their assets to higher ground as part of a voluntary land-swap agreement. The planning process was fast-tracked by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) and completed in just four months, an exercise that would normally take two to three years.  This was during a period when Council resources were already stretched with flood relief efforts.  The framework under which it was delivered is unique in both a statutory and physical sense.  It is arguably one of the most concentrated reconstruction projects associated with the January 2011 floods.

To meet deadlines, a tight, experienced team of designers was assembled by the Lockyer Valley Regional Council to draw on all available information to paint a clear picture of the issues and opportunities relating to the site.

It was a process guided by community.  The relocation site was purchased and surveyed then only 4 weeks after the flood event the first of three co-design workshops were held with the Grantham Community.   The community was still in trauma, with some attending sessions with packed bags carrying all the possessions they had left after the flood.  These workshops drove a master plan that guided relocation and a two-year vision followed by a future master plan exploring the potential future of the Grantham town and community to provide growth and ongoing prosperity.  There was not the luxury of linear constraints-based planning processes.  Preliminary best practice design work was progressed simultaneously with detailed reporting and investigation to inform the development of design outcomes and other studies.  All of this was completed by the end of March

To enable the rapid planning responses necessary, the QRA declared Grantham as the first Reconstruction Area under the Queensland Reconstruction Authority Act 2011 (the QldRA Act).  By May Grantham had its own DRAFT development scheme.

May also coincided with the commencement of construction lead by Peter Smith from Cardno.  To avoid the protracted processes of tendering and engagement but also ensure that expenditure on the project was captured within the Lockyer Valley, the Council deployed its own construction team to deliver Stage 1 of the project.  The project created up to 60 jobs in the Lockyer Valley Region alone.  Collaboration drove effectiveness.  That work was done with incredible pride by the team on site.

By December the first residents were moving in through land swap agreements with 100 homes relocated over the following months.

Here’s the thing.  Even saying this today it all sounds like a very wild and risky ride – 80/20.  But during the entire process there was strong and constant collaboration across a very flat team structure and with very strong leadership from mayor Steve Jones and Development Manager Jamie Simmonds.  This coupled with strong community liaison by Narelle Pool kept people informed.  The goal was very simple: get people back in their own safe home within 12 months.

Northern Rivers

Then 11 years later we had the costliest natural disaster in Australian history in the Northern Rivers. Lismore alone copped flooding over 2m higher than any previous event this century.  More than 1800 properties were damaged, some beyond repair, with over 400 of those in just two suburbs of Lismore.  The scale was daunting and still is.

By the end of that year over 52% of flood victims were still living in damaged houses or in tents.

The process in Northern Rivers was different.  A buy back process running in parallel with a land supply process.  The buyback program was not revolutionary but was probably a world first in its scope and scale.  It was built on fairness and flexibility for participants.  The challenge however for many buy back participants was that the market could not deliver homes or land at a price that enabled them to move.

With that paradigm sinking in, Deicke Richards and Jamie Simmonds were engaged with a tight team of planners, valuers and development managers to identify sites suitable for relocation.   Within 2 months we had three strong candidates for Lismore and several in other parts of the Northern Rivers. Just looking at our project file I think we assessed 50 sites during the commission.  As sites are acquired community is engaged to help shape the outcomes.  The projects are proceeding and one is now complete, but the time is taking its toll on the community.

Out takes

So in summary, here are my takes on the importance of working together in climate adaption and disaster recovery scenarios.

1. Team Structure – Large pyramid style teams with their respective decision-making processes provide prudent governance for business as usual but can be slow moving beasts in the face of pressing need.  Flatter collaborative and high performing teams, (while not suited to everything) are worth considering if time is of the essence.
2. This stuff is hard and you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. You are supporting a community who are both vulnerable and in distress.  If you get punched in the face along the way, it’s not necessarily personal.
3. Teamwork makes the dream work. Trust in each other is essential.  By all means challenge each other respectfully but also stick your knitting and remain focused on the big picture.
4. Be kind to each other. No one takes on these projects without having a deep compassion for those that are affected and an intent to do the best they can for their communities.  Do not ask for things that get in the way of the core mission or beat each other up over the small stuff.
5. Take Risks. This is probably the most important and seems counter intuitive given the circumstances. The powers put in place for Reconstruction Authorities are there for a reason.  It is not to pull the wool over the community’s eyes but to ensure that risk adverse and lengthy processes do not delay recovery and desperate housing need.