Walcha mayor Eric Noakes is trying to secure more government assistance to help the town recover from last month’s storm.
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"Walcha Council is working with Local Land Services to upgrade the disaster assistance category,” Cr Noakes said.
“This will allow primary producers access to grants and funding to help them with this clean-up.”
Many land-owners, already struggling with drought, may now have to pay up to $1 million to to clear their land of fallen timber.
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Last week, the state government declared that the shire was eligible for category B assistance under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
This helps local governments to restore essential public assets, and helps small businesses and primary producers through concessional loans, subsidies, or grants.
Cr Noakes wants the assistance upgraded to a category C (for severely affected communities, including clean-up and recovery grants for small businesses and primary producers) or D (exceptional circumstances).
“We’re hopeful of getting it for the primary producers,” Cr Noakes said, “and will push as hard as we can to achieve that.”
He noted, however, that none of the 60 natural disaster areas in the state last year were elevated to a category C or D.
The LLS sent out surveys this week asking local landholders to estimate the damage. These must be submitted by today.
The LLS will use this information to prepare an Agriculture Disaster Assessment Report.
The state government would take at least three weeks to accumulate the information before it could make its decision, Cr Noakes said.
The states provide assistance, and the Prime Minister must sign off.
“The application is now out of our hands,” Cr Noakes said, “but we will certainly be lobbying to get it upgraded to a C or D.”