Natural disasters have impacted Queensland communities in all corners of the state in 2021-22 and now they have the opportunity to build damaged infrastructure back better, helping communities maintain their connectedness and reduce hardship during and after disaster events in the future.

The Australian and Queensland Governments are providing $170 million in Betterment funding to build essential public infrastructure damaged in the 2021-22 disaster season to a more resilient standard.

The funding will allow applicable councils and state agencies to improve key assets such as causeways, culverts, roads and bridges to better withstand the impacts of natural disasters.

Building back better works

Building back better through the Betterment Fund not only maintains essential infrastructure for communities but it also saves millions in repair costs. One example of previous funding is work completed on Richmond Road, Croydon Shire just near the base of the Gulf of Carpentaria. Previous flooding events have caused the important transport link to close for up to four months causing significant disruption for local residents and primary producers.

Since the road was upgraded it has been impacted by six natural disaster events and remained operating throughout plus saved nearly $10 million in repair costs.

Another Betterment Fund success story is the Aurukun Access Road which was the only road link to and from the Aurukun community and was regularly severely flood impacted.

Betterment funding from 2013 was used to bitumen-seal a section of the road that was particularly vulnerable to flood damage. Since that time there have been eight disaster events and the road has remained functional and saved over $6.7 million in repair costs.

Available Funding

Applicable councils and state agencies within local government areas impacted by the Central, Southern and Western Queensland Rainfall and Flooding; Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth Flooding; the South East Queensland Heavy Rainfall and Flooding; and Southern Queensland Flooding can apply for funding from the $150 million to improve the resilience of essential public assets that were damaged as a direct result of those floods.

The further $20 million is available in all 66 local government areas activated for disaster funding following the nine disasters that impacted Queensland during the 2021-22 disaster season.

The Betterment Fund will be jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland Governments and is being administered by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority.

Councils and state agencies can apply for the $170 million Betterment funding in response to the 2021-22 season at the Queensland Reconstruction Authority website.

For more information on Queensland’s Betterment Fund go to the Queensland Reconstruction Authority website.