Information technology for counter disasters operations.

The aim of this paper is to focus on disaster operations as they apply to the Natural Disasters Organisation (NDO) and in particular to the National Emergency Operations Centre (NEOC). The NDO has the dual responsibilities of acting as the Commonwealth's coordination centre for the provision of Commonwealth physical assistance to the States and Territories and designated overseas nations of the S.W. Pacific region, in the wake of natural disasters, and of maintaining a core capability in civil defence matters. NDO's operational functions and roles are exercised from within the NEOC, which has a permanent staff of 4 servicemen and 4 civilians. Technology is still 10 years away from a situation where the ready exchange of data between different computers is a simple operation. NDO have to remain compatible with the Defence Force command and control computer programme because of the need for automatic transfer of message traffic. The conclusion is that the country will have to face another disaster of the magnitude of Cyclone Tracy before sufficient interest and support is given to the NDO to update information technology