During the 50 's and 60 's the Australian community experienced a number of natural disasters and manmade crises . As a public safety asset , these state based Civil Defence organisations were regularly but not always called upon to assist . This changed on 7 February 1967 when the Black Tuesday bushfires swept through the City of Hobart with devastating consequences . The Civil Defence teams had been called out and responded well . The 1967 Tasmanian fires were a seminal point in the development of structured emergency management in Australia . During the early 1970s each state progressively remodelled their Civil Defence organisations to realign their focus away from the protection of the community in wartime to protection of the community in times of disaster . This transformation was also reflected in a name change from Civil Defence to State Emergency Service ( SES ) . In 1974 , the Federal Government established the Natural Disaster Organisation ( NDO ) within the Department of Defence . This was a support organisation only able to provide a coordination and training role . It did not control the state organisations , manage the response or own the resources required to respond effectively to a crisis
1967 Tasmanian fires
1967 Tasmanian fires
Emergency Management in Australia