Bushfire funding: Sarsfield and Ensay projects to go ahead

After hitting bureaucratic brick walls after the Black Summer fires more than two years ago, Sarsfield and Ensay have scored funding breakthroughs.

Two East Gippsland towns caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare are celebrating after bushfire recovery cash they were previously denied would be delivered in next week’s budget.

A community hall and other facilities at the Sarsfield Recreation Reserve and a replacement building at the Ensay Recreation Reserve were rejected by the National Resilience and Recovery Agency on the grounds the applications were made by a state government entity which was disallowed under the program guidelines.

But the full amounts of $3.6 million for the Sarsfield project and $2.3 million for the Ensay proposal, which also includes new lighting to assist emergency aircraft landing at the reserve in future emergencies, will be bankrolled under a community development grants program administered by a different federal department.

Sarsfield Community Association president Simon Hof welcomed the change of heart and hoped other small communities still chasing funding including Wairewa and Buchan would have similar success.

“It’s like you’ve climbed a mountain and you’ve got to the top and the view is amazing,” Mr Hof said.

“We’re overwhelmed with joy.

“We were literally in the process of writing new grants to try and half fund some of the things in this.

“But Wairewa has still missed out and Buchan has got nothing so it is a little bitter sweet.”

Recreation reserves are managed by community based volunteers on behalf of the state government and their ABNs were used in the applications which triggered the knock-backs.

The Ensay Recreation Reserve will be upgraded with a $2.3 million federal funding grant.

Kym Skews, who helped put together the Ensay application, was ecstatic with the outcome.

“Having toilets and showers in the one building people of all abilities can use and don’t have to go outside at night is massive,” she said.

“There are no toilets at all in the current building so the best thing to do was build something new rather than do a patch up or retrofit.

“The toilets are in a paddock and aren’t wheelchair friendly.”

Mr Hof and Ms Skews praised Gippsland MP Darren Chester’s advocacy in securing the funding.

“This is a huge win for Sarsfield and Ensay. It’s a victory for common sense,” Mr Chester said.

“As I said at the time, it was farcical for the NRRA to rule these groups ineligible because of a technicality and just add to the stress in bushfire impacted communities.

“The bureaucrats need to remember they are meant to help the recovery process, not place more obstacles in the way of traumatised people.

“I will continue to work with Wairewa and other community groups, and across all levels of government, to secure grants for other unfunded projects in our region.”