Supporting local communities in North Queensland to recover from and become more resilient to monsoonal floods.

Purpose

The $91.8 million North Queensland Recovery and Resilience Package will support far north, north and north-west Queensland communities with their long-term needs in disaster recovery and resilience. 

The North Queensland Recovery and Resilience Package comprises of three initiatives:

• North Queensland Resilience Program – $84.8 million
• Restocking and On-farm Infrastructure Grants Program – $5 million
• On-farm Resilience Study – $2 million

These initiatives will support eligible communities and primary producers to recover from significant monsoonal flooding experienced over a number of years, and strengthen the region to future severe weather events.

The new initiatives will be administered by the Queensland Government. Please refer to the dropdown options below for further information on each program.

Key dates

The three initiatives have different opening dates. They will be announced in mid-2024.

Restocking and On-farm Infrastructure Grants Program

Under the $5 million Restocking and On-farm Infrastructure Grants Program, grants up to $150,000 will be available to farmers impacted in the 2023 monsoonal floods to replenish livestock numbers and replace damaged fencing and other infrastructure.

The program will be administered by the Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority.

Primary producers in the following Local Government Areas may be eligible to apply for a grant:

• Boulia
• Burke
• Carpentaria
• Cloncurry
• Doomadgee
• Mornington
• Mount Isa

Further information will be made available closer to program opening date.

On-farm Resilience Study

Over the past few years, several severe flooding events have impacted primary producers in north Queensland, most significantly a monsoonal flooding event between December 2022 to April 2023 and a monsoonal trough between January and February 2019. These two events and other flooding events in the northern Gulf regions of Queensland led to heavy losses of livestock and damage to farm infrastructure.

One solution proposed to mitigate or minimise these losses in future natural disasters is the establishment of livestock mounds as raised earthworks to act as animal refuges during future flooding events and the raising of essential farm infrastructure such that it is not destroyed or damaged in rising flood waters.

Under the $2 million On-farm Resilience Study, there will be study on the feasibility of measures such as building livestock refuge mounds and enhancing equipment and infrastructure to reduce disaster impacts.

The initiative will be developed and administered by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

North Queensland Resilience Program

Under the $84.8 million North Queensland Resilience Program, there will be allocative grants program towards preparedness, prevention and mitigation measures to combat natural disaster risk across road and transport networks, community, and the environment. The program will support local and regional projects that have been identified and prioritised by North Queensland’s most disaster-hit local councils to improve disaster resilience.

The program will be administered by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.

The program will be open to eligible applicants in the following local government areas:

• Boulia
• Burdekin
• Burke
• Carpentaria
• Charters Towers
• Cloncurry
• Doomadgee
• Douglas
• Etheridge
• Flinders
• Hinchinbrook
• McKinlay
• Mornington
• Mount Isa
• Richmond
• Townsville
• Whitsunday
• Winton

Further information will be made available closer to program opening date.