From managerial dysfunction toward communicative competence: rediscovering dramaturgy and voice in communicating risk

In the Sydney bushfires of January 1994 in the state of New South Wales, Australia, risk and crisis might perhaps have been seen to be scintilla on a perceptual spectrum. The risk of conflagration in hundreds of thousands of acres of bushland, in particular on either side of the Great Dividing Range, was the subject of Bush Fire Services Commissioner Koperberg’s (1993) assessment and communication to the state government in the months prior to the conflagration. This conflagration, in fact, raged on 800 fronts for fifteen days and nights. It was contested by 20, 000 regulars and volunteers. It burned out 1.5 million acres, destroyed 185 homes, injured more than 100 people, and left four dead.