Whitsunday Regional Council to receive disaster funding helping secure vital resources for recovery
Disaster funding will bring money for damaged local infrastructure and more time to get critical supplies back on the shelves.
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Whitsunday Regional Council is set to receive disaster funding which will help secure vital resources for recovery, repairs and rebuilding after heavy rain and flooding caused damage.
It has been categorised as an applicable area for Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements disaster funding.
This Australian Government funding recognises the significant cost of natural disasters, and aims to alleviate the financial burden on the states and facilitate the early provision of assistance to disaster affected communities.
Gary Murphy, Director of Infrastructure at the Whitsunday Regional Council said there are three things council normally gets access to under the disaster funding, counter-disaster operations, reconstruction of essential public assets, and community relief.
Counter-disaster operations cover immediate response to the general public and immediate response to a disaster event where Council is going out and making things safe, he said.
The reconstruction of essential public assets includes any repair work that needs to be done, said Mr Murphy, for example fixing roads.
“If we’ve got to fix a broken bridge straight away, what we do is we make safe, then we photograph and gather evidence, then we might be given an interim approval to go and reinstate temporary access or temporarily fix it, then we apply again for funding to do the ultimate repair,” he explained.
He added that for emergency works and immediate reconstruction works there can be a few days to a few week turnaround, depending on the scale. But if they then needed to go back and fully reconstruct something that could cost millions of dollars, that would normally take a few months to get the approvals.
Community relief helps councils to repair and replace community assets that aren’t covered by the counter disaster or reconstruction funding, said Mr Murphy.
This funding has already been used to replace a ripped shade sail at Queens Beach, regrade Airlie Beach, and clean up fallen trees.
Mr Murphy said sometimes the process to receive the funding can be frustrating for the community who want to see infrastructure restored to pre-event conditions as quickly as possible.
“We may go and make safe and put a sign up that says this road’s closed and then unless it’s something we can fix easily under emergency works, sometimes we have to actually go through a process of getting a bit more approval to spend a heap of money,” he said.
He added in some instances Council may choose to apply for resilience funding, this would be used for example if a floodway gets washed out repeatedly and it would be more cost effective to spend more money to create a more permanent solution.
“We’ve been applying for a lot more resilience funding,” he said.
“At the moment we’re trying to get some resilience funding for concrete causeways where our gravel road network washes out all the time.”
Mr Murphy said progress is already being made as the weather clears with crews assessing roads and getting approvals processed.
“We’ve had lots of staff just filling potholes to maintain safety,” he added.
The announcement follows two Applicable Event emergency planning declarations signed off by Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie allowing Local Government Areas to operate around the clock to ensure shops can restock their shelves.
That includes Mackay Regional Council.
The Deputy Premier and Minister for State Development, Infrastructure and Planning said shops, warehouses and transport deports would be able to operate 24/7.
“This declaration will allow more regions more time to get critical supplies back on the shelves,” he said.
“As the flooding situation continues to evolve, grocery suppliers are investigating all options via road, sea and air.
“Supporting the community to access the resources it needs is critical for recovery efforts.”
Businesses can apply for a Temporary Use Licence if they need to innovate or change how they operate in unprecedented circumstances.
This Applicable Event is set to remain in place until 30 April 2025 unless revoked prior or extended.
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