Introduction: Dealing with natural disasters and their after-effects are among the most difficult tasks governments face. Such disasters can seriously harm the financial, social, environmental, and human welfare of a country, and managing them often requires co-ordination between local authorities, businesses, neighbourhood groups, and volunteer organisations. Public policy makers and theorists are aware that effective...

Disasters are focusing events that can drive immediate policy change. It argues that good recovery institutions provide the adaptive capacity that enables communities to recover from natural disasters. This paper briefly describes recovery processes after three natural disasters in Australia and New Zealand between 2009 and 2011: bushfires in Victoria in 2009, flooding in Queensland...