This report looks at natural disaster recovery in Australia. The report, which draws on case studies of four towns still recovering from flooding, cyclones and bushfires up to five years down the track, reveals there is inadequate planning for many of the short and long-term disaster effects.

The aim of this paper is to consider how the concept of urban resilience could be better embedded into the urban process of decision-making and policy development and therefore result in more resilient cities.

This paper uses the case of the Bendigo 2009 bushfire in Victoria, Australia. It considers why certain parts of the built-up area in Bendigo were more susceptible to bushfire-attack than others, as a base for development of key urban design principles to increase settlement resilience to bushfire.