The unprecedented bushfire recovery support for the Central Coast community has hit $25 million in State and Commonwealth government funding, following the horrific Black Summer of bushfires 2019-20.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Central Coast and Member for Terrigal Adam Crouch said residents and business owners were benefitting from a total of $25,440,478 allocated across the Central Coast local government area.
“The Black Summer of bushfires saw 20 properties on the Central Coast damaged and a further 20 properties destroyed, including four homes which were lost,” Mr Crouch said.
“Funding has been provided to help landowners and business owners, particularly in suburbs like Mangrove Mountain that were impacted by the Three Mile Fire.
“Recovery is not only an individual journey, but a whole-of-community journey. That’s why funding has been made available to families, businesses and the local council.
“Importantly, Central Coast Council has received $200,000 for local recovery projects including the ‘Front Yard Fridays’ and ‘Buy Local’ campaigns so that we can rebuild not just physical infrastructure, but also community wellbeing.”
Support provided to the Central Coast community includes:
– Over $500,000 in grants for bushfire-affected small businesses and primary producers,
– $9,000 in council rate rebates,
– 16,695 people received Disaster Recovery Payments totalling $20 million,
– $3,338,000 in child payments, and
– $1,275,000 in one-off grants to Central Coast Council.
A total of $4.4 billion in State and Commonwealth Government funding has been committed to the NSW bushfire response, recovery and preparedness efforts, including:
– Clean-up of properties destroyed or damaged by the bushfires,
– Grants for small businesses, both directly and indirectly affected by the bushfires,
– Grants for primary producers,
– Provision of case management support for bushfire affected individuals and families,
– Financial support for local councils to clean-up and repair roads and bridges, and dispose of bushfire debris, and
– Grants to support the recovery of local communities and industries.
Applications for a further $250 million of bushfire recovery support from the NSW Government closed on Thursday, 28 January and applications are being assessed. As per the guidelines, areas that have not yet received funding will receive priority in this round.
