$269 million in Extraordinary Assistance for North Queensland

The new recovery packages cover infrastructure, community and mental health care, business, industry, and the environment, to ensure the region can bounce back.

The assistance measures are jointly funded by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), and include:

• $205 million in Betterment funding to support the flood recovery and resilience of the Bruce Highway and other key state-owned connection roads and assets like Ollera Creek Bridge, allowing them to be built back to a more resilient standard.
• $26.23 million Small Business and Tourism Recovery Support Package that features financial assistance for operators who lost income after being cut off.
• $18.9 million Community Health and Wellbeing Package, providing impacted, vulnerable and at-risk residents with personal and emotional support.
• $9.7 million Mental Health Package for individual and family therapeutic care to mitigate mental health impacts caused by the floods.
• $7.1 million Primary Production Industry Support Package to help farmers with recovery activities and disaster preparedness planning.
• $2.1 million Environmental Recovery Package to support the restoration of north Queensland’s unique coastline and land ecosystems.

The new support packages have been developed in close consultation with councils, communities and industry with north Queensland’s recovery front of mind.

It brings a total of more than $427 million in extraordinary disaster recovery funding through the DRFA going towards the flood response in North Queensland.

The Queensland Reconstruction Authority will continue to work with all stakeholders on the delivery of these packages to ensure north Queensland emerges from the floods stronger than ever before.

Breakdown of new DRFA Cat C&D extraordinary recovery packages:

Betterment, $205 million

• Bruce Highway Flood Resilience Program
• Inland Connection Roads Resilience Program

Small Business and Tourism Recovery, $26.23 million

Small Business, $19.8 million

• Small Business Exceptional Assistance Grants
• Small Business Support Network

Tourism Industry, $6.43 million

• Building Resilient Tourism Infrastructure Fund
• Aviation and Trade Partnerships Visitor Incentive
• Open for Business Marketing Campaign
• Events Boost Program
• Tourism Recovery Officer

Community Health and Wellbeing, $18.9 million

• Community Recovery and Resilience Officers
• Community Recovery Connect Workers
• Community Recovery Rebuild Support
• Community Recovery Engagement Coordinators

Mental Health Disaster Recovery, $9.7 million

• Townsville Mental Health Recovery Team
• Mackay Mental Health Recovery Team
• Children’s Health Queensland
• Uniting Care
• Torres and Cape Mental Health Recovery Team
• Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations

Primary Producer Industry Recovery and Resilience, $7.1 million

• Clinical Psychologists/Mental Health Practitioners
• Rural Financial Counsellors
• Industry Recovery and Resilience Officers
• Rurally Focused Business Wellness Coaches
• Specialist agronomist to support horticulture and sugar cane producers with recovery and mitigation techniques
• Recovery, Preparedness and Mitigation workshops

Environmental Recovery, $2.1 million

• Environmental clean-up and local conservation