The Western Downs will benefit from a $500,000 investment into bushfire resilience in the wake of the catastrophic bushfires that ravaged the region in 2023.
The $500,000 Bushfire Mitigation Package will support a bushfire mitigation study to improve community disaster preparedness and resilience following the 2023 bushfire events.
Western Downs Regional Council mayor Andrew Smith said the findings from the resilience study would be used to inform new strategies to better protect the Western Downs from future bushfires in the region.
"The millions of dollars invested into disaster response and recovery efforts can be significantly reduced by this vital study into the region's disaster preparedness and resilience," Cr Smith said.
"In the height of the bushfire emergency in late 2023, Council established a comprehensive 'Build Back Better' recovery plan, which included an appeal to the State Government for funding to explore and implement bushfire resilience strategies to keep our communities safe.
"Council will work closely with the Queensland Fire Department, as lead agency, to undertake this regional bushfire resilience study to explore strategies such as vegetation clearing, construction of dams, fire breaks and other resilience initiatives to better protect our towns and rural properties from future bushfire events."
The Western Downs endured seven natural disasters between 2021 and 2023 including five major flooding events and two catastrophic bushfire emergencies in February/March and October/November last year.
"Our region is prone to natural disasters and Western Downs Regional Council is one of the most activated Local Governments in Queensland in terms of disaster management," Cr Smith said.
"Between the consecutive flooding events since 2021, and the bushfires of 2023, the Western Downs has experienced compounding extreme weather events in which one disaster has fed directly into the next.
"The Western Downs region will continue to experience extreme weather and we know from past events, that it's not enough to have the plans, resources and funding to recover when disaster strikes - we need disaster mitigation strategies in place before disaster strikes.
"This funding is a tremendous outcome for improving regional disaster resilience to keep our communities safe.
"I'd also like to thank the Queensland Government for increasing the Structural Assistance Grant (SAG) to $70,000 to assist residents who are uninsured or unable to claim insurance in returning to their properties.
"We are very fortunate to still have St Vincent de Paul on the ground in the Western Downs supporting and assisting residents through the recovery process."
The Bushfire Mitigation Package will be funded by the Queensland Government under the Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).
