The Federal Government is reducing the risk and minimising the impact to communities of large scale natural disasters like floods, bushfires and cyclones in Cowper by directly funding four projects to the value of $420,770.
The Preparing Australian Communities Program – Local stream is the first tranche of the Preparing Australia Program, an investment by the Australian Government of $600 million over six years to build the nation’s resilience to natural disasters.
“We know communities are best placed to understand their unique needs and how they can best improve their resilience and reduce their level of risk to natural disasters that’s why these projects have been assessed to be so important to Cowper.
The projects approved in Bellingen, Stuarts Point and Port Macquarie were 3 of 158 projects across the country that shared in $150 million dollars from the Commonwealth Government.
“Disasters currently cost Australian taxpayers $18.2 billion per year and this has been forecast to rise to $39 billion per year by 2050, even without increased frequency and intensity of weather events due to climate change,” Mr Conaghan said.
In delivering this program, the Australian Government is not only increasing disaster preparedness and resilience, but also reducing the cost in time and money of recovery following future disasters.
There are three streams of the Preparing Australia Program:
- Preparing Australian Communities Program for projects of local significance (Communities Local program) – focussed on public risk reduction.
- Preparing Australian Communities Program for projects of National Significance – focussed on public risk reduction.
- Preparing Australian Homes Program – focussed on private risk reduction.
For more information and a full list of projects funded under Round One of the Preparing Australian Communities Program – Local stream visit: https://recovery.gov.au/disaster-risk-reduction/preparing-australia-program
| Organisation | Project | Brief Project Description | Funding |
| LGA | |||
| Stuarts Point And District Community Organisation (Spadco) | Stuarts Point Community helps ourselves through a resilient initiative | Consultant investigations of an alternative egress for evacuations & restraint & guidelines for future development to reduce flooding. | $34,800 |
| Cultural burning around the town of Stuarts Point & Fisherman’s Reach. Workshop to describe and understand the difference between hazard reduction burning & indigenous cultural burning practices, also explanations of climate change impacts. Provision of a fire rating sign to be displayed in Stuarts Point hub & signage to clearly identify the Safe Place. Supply CB radios and batteries. Equipment to publish a newsletter. Improvement to safer place including shower facilities & roof sprinkler. | |||
| Bellingen Shire Council | Resilience Awareness Remote Flood Monitoring Infrastructure | Remote flood monitoring infrastructure will be installed on two bridges along North Bank Road Bellingen and Coramba Road Dorrigo livestreaming via Council’s disaster dashboard and website. These locations have been identified as high risk of flooding and alternative routes into each town. The community will have access to live information enabling informed decisions about driving on flood affected roads and bridges. Emergency services will benefit by being able to respond to priority areas in a timely manner supporting the community in times of need. | $98,691 |
| Port Macquarie Hastings Council | Westport Park Port Macquarie Revetment Wall | Westport Park on the Hastings River, is one of Port Macquarie’s most heavily utilised recreational spaces. The facilities located at this site accommodate a diverse user market ranging from recreational boating enthusiasts, destination playground users, through to major event participants and recreational users. | $99,500 |
| This area was heavily impacted by flooding in March 2021, with works ongoing to repair the facilities onsite. Funding will allow for essential reconstruction to portions of the river revetment wall at Westport Park to reduce the impact of flood events in the future and address current safety risks. The proposed works will provide safe access for community. | |||
| SHARED ELECTORATES | |||
| Meals On Wheels Nsw Ltd | ACT! – A Collaborative Toolkit | The ACT! (A Collaborative Toolkit) project will benefit bushfire and flood prone communities across NSW by empowering 20,000 older people receiving care at home to understand and prepare for local emergencies. ACT was developed by Meals on Wheels NSW, Australian Red Cross, SES, RFS and Fire and Rescue NSW to increase the emergency preparedness of older people, to reduce loss of life during a disaster and to make communities more resilient after the emergency. By training workers and volunteers in the Home Care sector to use the toolkit, and identify clients who may benefit from it, clients can develop an emergency plan, be referred to agencies for a risk assessment of their homes or recorded as possibly requiring evacuation assistance. | $187,779 |
