In the two years since, these organisations have focused their efforts on building community resilience and preparing for any challenges that may lie ahead.

Government support of these efforts continue, with 18 recipients of the Cessnock Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Grants program announced at a morning tea at Laguna Community Hall on Thursday.

The grants - worth $133,320 in total - were designed to support small-scale, community-led projects that promote recovery, resilience, disaster preparedness and wellbeing - with infrastructure, equipment, connection and education initiatives among the projects that will be funded.

Resilience NSW Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons was in attendance at the event, which also included the launch of the Cessnock Disaster Dashboard - a one-stop portal which offers real time information on everything from traffic and weather to floods and bushfires.

Commissioner Fitzsimmons said implementing the learnings of the last few years would help to build resilience across the state.

"Resilience is all about learning through lived experiences, so we can come out the other side of disaster and disruption with the ability to better anticipate and understand what our vulnerabilities are and how we can mitigate them," Commissioner Fitzsimmons said.

"We're pleased to launch the Cessnock Disaster Dashboard, which will make critical information more accessible than ever before for communities in the region, helping to keep them informed and prepared."

Cessnock mayor Jay Suvaal said the Black Summer bushfires saw the Cessnock community come together to meet an enormous challenge.

"In December 2019, our community came under threat from bushfires approaching from several fronts," Cr Suvaal said.

"For the entire month of December our volunteers, joined by brigades from Lower Hunter, Sydney and the North Coast, fought hard to stop the encroachment of these fires.

"Volunteers put in long hours to protect their community. Neighbours helped neighbours to safeguard properties that came under threat. There were many heroic acts during this time and Cessnock's strong community spirit was palpable.

"These grants are to assist local communities with bushfire readiness, but also to build our social resilience so that we can continue to be a community where neighbours do help neighbours and our community's capacity to work together to meet the challenges that natural disasters bring is strengthened."

Resilience NSW has invested $500,000 in the Cessnock local government area for recovery and resilience through grants, the employment of a Community Recovery Officer and other resilience activities.

The grant recipients were:

ROUND 1

- Valley Artists: for a portable air conditioning unit for use at Laguna Hall during emergencies and community events.

- Wollombi School Community Education Trust: for upgrades and improvements to the capacity of Wollombi School Community Centre to be able to support residents before, during and after emergencies, including a back-up generator.

- Bucketty & District Rural Fire Brigade: for resilience building Get Ready Day for Bucketty and surrounding communities, including provision of skip bins to encourage clean-up of properties to mitigate bushfire risk.

- Congewai Valley Landcare: for a community firefighting trailer for the Congewai Valley.

- Wollombi Valley Pony Club: to install a water tank in Wollombi Village for extra water supply to help protect the village and surrounding properties.

- Wollombi Valley Progress Association: to install an underground water line from the existing water tank at Wollombi Cultural Centre to allow easy refilling for RFS tankers.

- Wollombi Tennis Club: to install outdoor exercise equipment for improved wellbeing and resilience building.

- Wollombi Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade: for building community connection and resilience, Get Ready education workshops, a family day, information leaflet and a community notice board.

- North Rothbury Rural Fire Brigade: for equipment storage lockers for RFS members, to improve capacity and capability to respond to emergencies.

ROUND 2

- The Lions Club of Branxton: for community connection and capacity-building events.

- Top Blokes Foundation: for a youth mentoring and social education program for young males at Kurri Kurri High School.

- Early Links Inclusion Support Service: for "Weaving Together" - a community connection workshop for people with a disability, with a disaster preparedness and Indigenous cultural focus.

- We Help Ourselves: for a bushfire risk mitigation project at the We Help Ourselves community facility.

- Laguna P&C Association: for building bushfire resilience through digital storytelling, including a video series of Wollombi Valley locals sharing their stories of bushfire resilience.

- Wollombi Valley Progress Association: for community connection and education events for the Bucketty and Laguna region.

- Lifeline Direct: for extension of its free bushfire mental health counselling services in the Cessnock LGA.

- Wollombi School Community Education Trust: for improving resident access to and a healthier environment within the Wollombi School Community facility, which is used to connect people, build resilience and provide an accessible community facility in an emergency.

- Northern Coalfields Community Care Association: for "Project Nourish", to purchase of two portable freezers which would hold up to 2400 meals, which could be used to feed emergency response teams, volunteers and residents during a disaster. This could also be used to provide an outreach Meals on Wheels service to Wollombi Valley.