Organisations are increasingly finding themselves responding to unprecedented natural disasters that are complex and unpredictable. This study examined how organisations understand and learn from these novel experiences by examining three Australian bushfires. It showed how sense-making and learning occurred during public inquires that followed those events, and how learning continued in emergency management organisations.

Part of this study also involved analysing the the devastating impacts that disasters such as bushfires can have, on how emotions influence the sensemaking process associated with implementing recommendations in such organisations. This project built a new theory in relation to the ways that individuals in organisations make sense of and learn from public inquiry recommendations after disasters, while highlighting the role of both negative and positive emotions in this process.