Mayor Welcomes Bushfire Recovery and Resilience Funding Announcement

Published on 04 November 2020

Snowy Valleys Council Mayor James Hayes has welcomed the Government’s announcement of close to $45million in bushfire recovery and resilience funding for the Snowy Valleys region.

Minister David Littleproud and Senator Jim Molan announced $56,064,164 million dollars for 26 Industry projects in the Eden-Monaro electorate to boost local economies as communities recover from the 2019-20 bushfires.

Mayor Hayes welcomed the funding announcement saying, “it will be a huge boost to the Snowy Valleys region – and provide a much-needed economic stimulus for fire impacted local industry and growers”.

“The Snowy Valleys region was successful in receiving backing for half of the 26 projects funded in the Eden-Monaro electorate which is a fantastic result,” Cr Hayes said.

Council’s 2020-21 Advocacy Plan focuses on partnerships for growth and recovery and Mayor Hayes said the funding announcement was a demonstration of Council’s commitment to working with government and advocating for community and industry support.

Council provided letters of support and application assistance for many of the local submissions and was also successful in securing funding for three of its priority projects; $480,000 for Upgrade of the Wondalga Road Timber Link; $3.95M for itinerant worker accommodation in Batlow; and $12.5M for upgrades to the Tumut Aerodrome to increase the capacity for fire-fighting operations and options for Air Ambulance flights.

“Council continues to advocate on behalf of our community and we are proud of the inroads made so far,” said Cr Hayes. “Congratulations to all those who have been successful.”

This was the first of two rounds of BCRRF funding and Council is currently making inroads into applications for round two, including four joint council recovery projects endorsed at the 29 October Ordinary Council meeting.

-ENDS-