Helping primary producers recover from flooding • Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) Southern Queensland

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Helping primary producers recover from flooding

Primary producers in Southern Queensland impacted by flooding can receive free flood recovery assistance

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How we help primary producers recover from flooding

If you’re a primary producer in Southern Queensland affected by flooding, the Rural Financial Counselling Service (RFCS) Southern Queensland is here to help your farm business through the flood recovery process.

The RFCS Southern Queensland provides free, impartial and confidential assistance with flood recovery. Helping primary producers to respond financially to the damage and losses resulting from the flooding.

Immediate assistance – accessing grants, disaster assistance and financial support

Our local rural specialists simplify the process and can help your farm business:

identify what grants, disaster assistance and financial support are available in your area and whether you are eligible
help you access the funding, including how to go about completing the application forms and gathering required documents.

We can help your farm business access funding you’re eligible for from the Queensland Government and Australian Government (see table below). Together with available funding from other providers that service your area.

Funding provider	About the funding	Amount
QRIDA	Extraordinary Disaster Assistance Recovery Grant – Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth Grant to assist primary producers affected by Ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth with clean up and recovery costs.	Up to $50,000
QRIDA	Extraordinary Disaster Assistance Recovery Grant – South East Queensland Rainfall and Flooding Grant to assist primary producers affected by the South East Queensland Rainfall and Flooding with clean up and recovery costs.	Up to $75,000
QRIDA	Disaster Assistance (Essential Working Capital) Loan Loan to assist primary producers with essential working capital for expenses.	Up to $100,000
QRIDA	Disaster Assistance Loan Loan to assist primary producers with re-establishing normal operations.	Up to $250,000
Queensland Government	Emergency Hardship Assistance Grant Grant to support people directly impacted by a disaster who are unable to meet their immediate essential needs for food, clothing, medical supplies or temporary accommodation.	$180 (per person) Up to $900 (family of 5 or more)
Queensland Government	Essential Household Contents Grant Grant to support people who are uninsured, or unable to claim insurance with replacing or repairing essential household contents that have been lost or damaged in a disaster.	Up to $1,765 (single adults) Up to $5,300 (couples/families)
Queensland Government	Structural Assistance Grant Grant to support people who are uninsured, or unable to claim insurance with repairs to their home to make it secure and safe.	Up to $10,995 (single adults) Up to $14,685 (couples/families)
Queensland Government	Essential Services Safety and Reconnection Grant Grant to support people who are uninsured, or unable to claim insurance with reconnection of essential services that were damaged by a disaster.	Up to $200 (safety inspection) Up to $4,200 (repair)
Services Australia	Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment Payment to help people who have been adversely affected by a major disaster.	$1,000 (per adult) $400 (per child)
Services Australia	Farm Household Allowance Fortnightly payment for farming families in financial hardship.	See Services Australia website

Medium term assistance – your recovery plan and finance

Your financial position may be impacted for 12 months or more after the flooding. As a result, you may need to:

develop a recovery plan for your farm business
renegotiate your existing financial commitments with your financiers and creditors
raise additional finance to support your farm business.

Our local rural specialists can assist in this process by helping you:

understand your financial situation and work with you to develop an effective recovery plan
identify your finance options
ensure the plan you present to your bank, Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) or your creditors is well prepared and considered – we may also be able to support you in having these discussions.

Longer term assistance – increasing farm business resilience

Farming in Australia can be challenging with droughts and floods occurring in cycles. As you put your plans into place after this flood event, you may want to consider:

how you can be better prepared in the future
whether there are opportunities to do things differently as you rebuild your farm business.

Our local rural specialists can assist you in developing a Farm Business Resilience Plan and accessing a QRIDA Preparedness Grant for this purpose. A QRIDA Preparedness Grant may be able to support you to undertake on-farm capital improvements that will improve the preparedness of your property.