Exercise management
Learn more about exercises, in which members of various agencies perform the tasks that would be expected of them in a real emergency.
Exercises are an essential component of the emergency management arrangements in NSW to:
- validate plans, and procedures and to prepare for emergencies
- develop competencies of staff and volunteers and for them to carry out roles and responsibilities and to assess and improve performance
- test well-established plans and procedures and reveal gaps that exist and opportunities for improvement
Guidance material and resources to assist with the designing of exercises.
A series of readily available toolkits to support the delivery of emergency management exercises.
A collection of case studies based on exercises that were conducted as part of the Emergency Management Exercise Program.
A collection of animations depicting the emergency management arrangements for a variety of scenarios.
Support For Exercising
The 2025-26 Multi-Agency Rescue Exercise Program has been established by the Premier’s Department to support multi-agency rescue capability development activities at a local and regional level in support of State Rescue Board of NSW (SRB) priorities. The program targets Regional Rescue Committees (RRC), Local Rescue Committees (LRC), and member agencies of the SRB.
2025-26 Multi-Agency Rescue Exercise Program Guidelines (PDF) 896 KB
The 2025-26 Emergency Management Exercise Program has been established by the Premier’s Department to support multi-agency exercising at a local and regional level in support of State Emergency Management Committee (SEMC) priorities. The Program targets Local Emergency Management Committees (LEMC) and Regional Emergency Management Committees (REMC).
2025-26 Emergency Management Exercise Guidelines (PDF) 417 KB
The Recovery Exercise Toolkit was developed by the National Emergency Management Agency and the Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience (AIDR). The Toolkit complements the Managing Exercises (AIDR Under Review) and Community Recovery (AIDR 2018) Handbooks.
The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidelines and a national reference for the design, planning, conduct and evaluation of exercises.