Leadership Lessons from a Tugboat in a Bushfire

Neil Barker and Bernadette O'Connor

To date in Australia approximately 18.6 million hectares (46 million acres) of the Australian bush have been burnt by bushfire, that’s the size of South Korea or Iceland. In comparison the fires in the Amazon Rainforest in 2019 burnt 906,000 hectares[1] (2.24 million acres).

As we write this 27 lives have been lost, 5,900 buildings destroyed, and it is estimated that more than one billion animals have died[2]. The cost to Australia is estimated to be more than AUD$4.4 billion[3], let alone the cost to the world’s environment. Of course, these calculations are complex, and these numbers are likely to be conservative estimates only. 

And the bushfire season in Australia is not over!

So why would anyone be on a tugboat in a bushfire? Do bushfires burn at sea? Well no, of course they don’t, but a tugboat moored at a wharf in a town that was being threatened by a massive bushfire is a great place to shelter. Made of steel, rigged with fire-fighting equipment and designed to protect a harbour and its fleet of fishing boats, the tugboat Cooma and its crew sheltered more than 50 people in the town of Eden on the far south east coast of Australia during the first days of 2020.

We have friends who had evacuated to Eden from North Wonboyn, were sheltering on that tugboat on 4 and 5 January, and based on their experience we have reflected on some of the leadership learnings that emerge from a situation such as this. Leadership is always personal; leadership can take many forms; leadership can be different in different contexts; and most importantly leadership can effect significant positive change.

The 'border bushfire', that had ravaged large areas of South East Gippsland in Victoria, rushed its way north and across the New South Wales/Victorian border towards Eden during the days of 3 and 4 January. The fire was out of control, had already burnt 60,000 hectares (150,000 acres)[4], and at times was travelling as fast as 6 kilometres per hour[5].

How does one manage their thoughts and feelings in order to make rational decisions when confronted by such life-threatening conditions? The dark red skies and choking smoked filled the air, felt oppressive and threatening, and together with the changing updates about the fire’s progress served to create frightening conditions. Good leaders learn to manage their stress and anxiety so that they can continue to serve those who they lead. That is not to say that they need to be totally in-control of themselves at all times, but being self-aware of their own needs, finding ways to manage their stress, sharing the leadership demands with others and adjusting to changing circumstances are hallmarks of effective self-leadership. On the tugboat there were clear instances of people taking on informal leadership roles – organising food and accommodation arrangements, seeking external resources and support, comforting and supporting others, and managing communications within and outside the tug. Inevitably some of the people taking on this informal leadership felt over-whelmed by the enormity of the situation and needed to take some time for themselves, were transparent about how they felt, and were prepared to acknowledge when they needed to step back for a bit. It is important that leaders are prepared to look after themselves, to role model that self-care and to know when they need to let others take the lead for a while.

We can learn a lot by looking at how communities come together when facing a shared crisis or emergency, and the depth of the relationships that develop in that time of adversity. The community that formed on the tugboat was built by many people who took the lead at different times and in different ways. People in the ‘tugboat community’ led by caring deeply for others - supporting those in the community with specific or special needs, facilitating open communication about the bushfire, and organising ‘systems’ for managing living conditions on the tug. Leadership is powerful when it is shared and owned by a community, as it is responsive to the changing needs of that community – leading from within. It is interesting that community can be built so quickly and with such strength under times of adversity. Our challenge as leaders is to build strong communities like these under everyday conditions.

At one stage the people on the tugboat were required to make a decision about whether to stay or go, a decision with implications for their health and wellbeing - potentially a life or death decision. Whilst leaders are usually not required to make life or death decisions, they are often required to make difficult decisions that can have significant impact on themselves and others. Whilst the tugboat ‘stay or go decision’ was a personal one for each individual and the friends/family with them, a number of factors were important in the decision-making process, including good data/information about the current bushfire conditions and about the protective nature of the tugboat verses alternative sheltering options. An important aspect of this decision making process was an opportunity for tugboat community members to discuss the options with each other without prejudice, and to receive support from the tugboat captain and crew who had the courage to resist external requests to make everyone leave the tug and evacuate to another town nearby, thus giving everyone the option to stay. In the end different people made different decisions based on their own needs, assessment and what ‘felt’ right for them. Good leadership requires access to good information, a careful consideration of options, the provision of opportunities for community to consider the matters at hand and courage in the face of unreasonable coercion. Interestingly ‘what felt right’ was a critical matter for people on the tugboat and is something that leaders should not discount as an aspect of their own decision making.

The tugboat on the wharf at Eden was just one of numerous places across Australia where people were sheltering from the bushfires in these early days of 2020, and in the context of the discussion about the causes of, and the responses to this bushfire emergency across the country, just one of a host of voices. From Eden and from the tugboat community came calls for resources to protect the community, calls that went unheeded. A failure of leadership at a national and state level to address the immediate dangers for this community, and to address the resourcing of measures to minimise bushfire events and to plan for improved response capability became evident during this Christmas and New Year period. These failures of leadership have a long genesis[6] beginning with the abject denial of the scientific reality of climate change.

Australia’s efforts to address climate warming have been poor and in a context where some Australian leaders have been unwilling to acknowledge the relationship between bushfires and climate change it is little wonder that the responses to the bushfires in various places across Australia in recent months have varied. Magnificent as the individual and team efforts have been in fighting interminable blazes, their achievements appear to be more dependent upon local response capability than on a broader systematic and coordinated approach. The national issue and the national crisis that ensued required strong and dynamic leadership responding to the many voices and the valid information available – leadership from within, for the whole country and all of its varied communities. This strong and dynamic leadership was not evident at a national level in the early days of 2020.

Leadership is not just about the here and now, it is about the future - the weeks and months, and most importantly the years and decades ahead. It is clear that we are experiencing longer, hotter and drier conditions in Australia and there is no doubt that climate change is the cause. Australia is one of the world’s highest per capita emitters of carbon dioxide – releasing 1.07% of the world’s greenhouse gases and constituting only 0.3% of the world's population. Australia has an opportunity to lead the world by significantly reducing its carbon footprint beyond recommended levels and as a consequence argue for other countries to do the same[7]. The argument is no longer about the role of climate change in this current bushfire emergency, but about what we must do as nation to effectively address bushfire preparedness and response, and climate change more broadly.

From the tugboat in a bushfire we can learn about the importance of leading oneself in order to effectively lead others, about the great value of leadership in and by a community for a community, about some of the conditions for effective decision making, particularly the role of ‘what feels right’, and about Australia’s opportunity to lead the world in effectively addressing the immediate and longer term causes of climate change[8].

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Note of thanks

Two of our good friends lived through the two weeks of the “border fire”.

They evacuated from their house at North Wonboyn to Eden and then sheltered on the tugboat for the two days of 4 and 5 January 2020.

They wish to thank the crew of the tugboat Cooma, their great friends Bill and Joy who took them into their home in Eden, the wonderful people of Eden and the ‘tugboat community’, and of course the brave men and women of the NSW Rural Fire Service who volunteer to protect our land, it’s fauna and flora, our homes and our lives, as well as those members of the NSW Forest Corporation and NSW Fire & Rescue who ably assisted the Eden community in the lead up to this event, and beyond it.

All photos courtesy of Liz O'Connor

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[1] Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Amazon_rainforest_wildfires Retrieved 16 January 2020

[2] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season Retrieved 16 January 2020

[3] The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/08/economic-impact-of-australias-bushfires-set-to-exceed-44bn-cost-of-black-saturday Retrieved 14 January 2020

[4] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season Retrieved 14 January 2020

[5] Canberra Times https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6566427/fire-bears-down-on-towns-on-nsw-vic-border/?cs=14231 Retrieved 14 January 2020

[6] Garnaut Climate Change Review, 2008 https://webarchive.nla.gov.au/awa/20190509040128/https://www.garnautreview.org.au/index.htm Retrieved 19 January 2020

[7] The Age, After the smoke clears: a path to zero emissions, Ross Garnaut, https://www.theage.com.au/by/ross-garnaut-p4yvmh Retrieved 19 January 2020

[8] Australian Academy of Science https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/news-and-media-releases/statement-regarding-australian-bushfires Retrieved 14 January 2020