News

Classrooms across the state can go into the running for a visit from rugby league legend Johnathan Thurston with Get Ready Queensland’s 2021 schools competition launching this week.

All primary schools are encouraged to enter the competition, which helps students learn about natural disasters and how to prepare for them in a creative way.

Flooding is a perennial issue in Queensland, with the state experiencing more than 70 flooding events since 2011.

That’s why we’re thrilled to release two important documents today that will help to reduce the risk of future flooding impacts on Queensland communities.

Queensland’s recovery from the devastating 2018-19 disaster season, which saw 12 natural disasters leave a more than a billion dollar damage bill, is almost complete with the overwhelming majority of reconstruction projects completed or in their final stages.

A total of 62 Queensland councils were activated for disaster assistance in 2018-19 from a range of events including the catastrophic 2018 Central Queensland Bushfires and the one-in-500-year monsoon trough flooding of early 2019.

A new framework to help flood practitioners better compare and invest in flood mitigation and resilience will help build safer communities and reduce the financial burden from floods.

Queensland Reconstruction Authority (QRA) Chief Executive Officer Brendan Moon said the Economic Assessment Framework of Flood Risk Management Projects sets a new standard for the economic assessment of flood risk mitigation projects in Australia.

Disaster assistance has been extended to the local government areas of Goondiwindi, Lockyer Valley, Quilpie and Southern Downs following the heavy rainfall and flash flooding that drenched Southern Queensland this week.

Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Disaster assistance is now available to Gold Coast, Logan and Scenic Rim councils following sustained heavy rainfall and ongoing flash-flooding across Southern Queensland.

Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Recovery assistance grants of up to $25,000 are now available to support the recovery of primary producers in Far North Queensland impacted by Tropical Cyclone Niran.

Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Queensland communities can now apply for a share of more than $19 million in resilience and risk reduction funding to help them better prepare for future disasters.

The Australian Government has partnered with the Queensland Government to make this assistance available, with $6 million exclusively earmarked for 14 Local Government Areas hardest hit by the 2019 North Queensland flood event.

Eight Queensland councils and one state agency will share in $10.7 million of additional funding in the latest round of support aimed at assisting economic and social recovery in communities impacted by the 2019 Queensland Bushfires.

Seven Queensland councils will share in $8.9 million of additional funding for a range of projects to help drive the economic recovery of Queensland communities impacted by last year’s bushfires.

Nine projects had been approved in the third round of the $36.8 million Local Economic Recovery Program (LER), jointly funded by the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.