Noosa community resilience backed by the National Bushfire Recovery fund
The Noosa community will be better prepared for natural disasters with $1.17 million in funding through the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Program to provide improved communications and a series of community resilience activities, Federal Member for Wide Bay and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Llew O’Brien announced today.
Noosa Shire Council will receive $778,000 for a VHF communication system for community facilities including local halls and key buildings, and a further $393,695 to facilitate a two-year program of community engagement and disaster resilience activities with a disaster resilience officer.
“The new VHF infrastructure will replace the existing outdated system and will be installed at key locations such as evacuation centres, hospitals and community halls that are prone to isolation in severe weather, allowing the Noosa Local Disaster Management Group and supporting agencies to maintain contact during times of natural disaster,” Mr O’Brien said.
“The program led by the Noosa LGA Disaster Resilience Officer will also help determine and address the needs of the community during natural disasters, and support community initiatives to build resilience and capability to respond during emergency events such as the bushfires which affected the region in 2019.”
Noosa Mayor Clare Stewart said the funding was fantastic news for the shire and its ongoing recovery from the 2019 bushfires.
“This federal funding certainly provides much needed financial relief while significantly improving our resilience for future events,” she said.
“As a council we are continually putting a significant focus on fire management measures and initiatives to support community resilience.
Cr Stewart said these type of initiatives generate a terrific return on investment in terms of liveability, improved community infrastructure and preparedness for any future natural disaster.
Mr O’Brien said the project was one of more than 18 projects in Wide Bay among the 524 projects funded under the $390 million Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grants program.
“The grants will fund a broad range of recovery and resilience projects in Wide Bay, from social and community wellbeing right through to repairing public infrastructure like bridges, and projects that support local jobs and small businesses,” he said.
“These are priority projects that have been identified by their local communities as offering lasting and tangible benefits, tailored to local needs and conditions, and the quality of the projects funded shows that our ‘locally led’ approach works.
“We understand that recovery from bushfires takes time, and we will continue to support impacted communities through their recovery from the devastating Black Summer bushfires of 2019-2020.”
Details of the funded projects are available on the National Recovery and Resilience Agency website at: https://recovery.gov.au/programs/black-summer-grants