Part of WHGNE’s GAD Pod research following the Black Saturday bushfires of 2009, this study began as WHGNE sought advice from workers ‘on-the-ground’ in the fire-affected Mitchell and Murrindindi shires as to the sensitivities in the communities and the best time for us to approach women for interviews. It explores the sense of reluctance, on the part of workers in these communities, to engage in research around disaster-related family violence, due to a desire to protect what they saw as a vulnerable community.