In a major emergency which extends over days or even weeks, such as the Canberra fires of 2003, the supply of GIS professionals can be exhausted and multi-skilled emergency management staff may, by necessity, be redeployed to other duties. When this occurs most emergency managers rely on agreements with other local organisations or with other jurisdictions to call upon additional GIS resources. While such agreements can be very effective they do not encompass the private sector, retirees, students or experts who may be much closer to hand but are simply not known to the emergency managers.

Canberra is the home of several local and Australian government agencies that specialise in GIS. This results in one of the highest concentrations of GIS expertise, per head of population, in Australia. The Mapping and Planning Support Group (MAPS) is a new volunteering model that enables emergency managers in the ACT and the surrounding region to reliably tap this valuable resource of willing and able experts.

In the aftermath of the Victorian bush fires, MAPS deployed more than fifty GIS professionals to Victoria to assist police with their search of the burnt out areas. This paper will discuss the MAPS volunteering model, what the MAPS volunteers achieved in Victoria, the technical and organisational challenges they encountered and the lessons learned for future deployments of expert volunteers.