News

Community groups, state and local governments, an architects’ firm and a North Queensland high school have taken out top honours at the 2020 Get Ready Queensland Resilient Australia Awards.

The winners were announced at a virtual ceremony today as part of this year’s Get Ready Queensland Week activities.

The Get Ready Queensland Team made a special visit to Rocklea State School this morning with GRQ ambassador Johnathan Thurston to officially launch Get Ready Queensland Week (12 – 18 October).

Five Queensland council areas heavily impacted by last year’s bushfires will share in more than $6 million to deliver a range of locally developed projects that will contribute to economic and social recovery, and create local jobs.

Forty-nine projects are being delivered through the $13.1 million Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund (QRRRF), a joint initiative between Australian and Queensland Governments.

Examples of projects being funded through QRRRF include floodway monitoring and warning systems for Balonne Shire Council ($528,000) and Toowoomba Regional Council ($150,000), bushfire mitigation works on Palm Island ($322,000), and severe wind hazard assessment for south east Queensland ($200,000).

QRA has developed a new mapping application that will help Queensland councils better understand their risks, costs and repeat damage from natural disaster events.

The Repeat Events and Dollars Index (REDI) application is a user-friendly, web-based interactive mapping tool that uses data to provide a calculation that considers repeat damage from natural disasters.

The data is represented in a ‘heat map’ that identifies and highlights the most frequent and most costly damage sites

Regional and remote parts of Queensland have been approved for almost $16 million to rebuild infrastructure damaged by the 2019 monsoon trough event to a more resilient standard.

As part of the Commonwealth and Queensland Governments’ $134.5 million infrastructure package, the latest round of funding has been allocated to 46 resilience projects that will ensure communities can better withstand extreme weather events.

Queensland communities can now apply for a share of more than $13 million in funding to help them better prepare for future disasters through the Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund (QRRRF).

The funding has been made available as part of the Commonwealth and Queensland Government’s five-year commitment to build safer and more resilient communities.

$12 million has just been announced for a further 26 resilient infrastructure projects in regional and remote communities impacted by the 2019 monsoon trough event. This funding is in addition to the more than $81 million already approved for stronger, more resilient infrastructure.

Queensland’s iconic Binna Burra Lodge is one step closer to reopening its doors to visitors thanks to almost $1.8 million in joint funding to support its recovery.

Surrounded by World Heritage-listed Lamington National Park, the Binna Burra has been a tourism drawcard since 1933 before being devastated by the bushfires late last year.    

The Australian and Queensland Governments today announced a $14 million Category C community recovery package to support the mental health and resilience of communities impacted by the Southern and Eastern Queensland Bushfires in 2019.

The package includes $4.7 million to address the risk to the mental health and wellbeing of communities doing it tough and $3 million to employ Community Development Officers.