Flood resilience grants and mental health support for North West Queensland

A new $5 million package to help pay for community recovery costs and resilience initiatives, as well as ramp up mental health support, is now available for Queenslanders impacted by recent disaster events in the state’s flood-affected north-west.

Local Recovery and Resilience Grants of $1 million are available to the councils of Boulia, Burke, Carpentaria and Doomadgee ($4 million total) to assist with recovery and support locally-led resilience initiatives.

A $1 million Community Mental Health Package will also deliver targeted mental health and wellbeing services to people in the areas of Boulia, Burke, Carpentaria, Doomadgee and Mount Isa.

This assistance is jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments through Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

This $5 million funding announcement is additional to a range of assistance measures already available to these north-west Queensland communities under the DRFA, including:

• Immediate hardship payments, with more than $231,000 so far distributed to approximately 1,130 people.
• Grants of up to $75,000 and low interest loans of up to $250,000 for eligible primary producers.
• Grants of up to $50,000 and loans of up to $250,000 for eligible small businesses and not-for-profit organisations.
• A $6 million coordinated livestock support and disposal package, including fodder drops.
• Reimbursement for council costs incurred in counter disaster operations like setting up disaster evacuation centres.
• Funding for the restoration of essential public assets such as damaged roads, floodways and bridges.

A full summary of disaster support available to Queenslanders, including Personal Hardship Assistance, can be found at www.qld.gov.au/disasterhelp.