Emergency Bushfire Primary Industries Grants

Grants of up to $75,000 are available to eligible primary producers directly impacted by the Victorian Bushfires to help pay for the cost of clean-up and other emergency measures including disposing of dead stock, and rebuilding or replacing damaged or destroyed on-farm infrastructure.

The support is available to bushfire affected primary producers in the local government areas of Ararat, Alpine, Ballarat, Campaspe, East Gippsland, Glenelg, Golden Plains, Greater Bendigo, Indigo, Mansfield, Moyne, Northern Grampians, Pyrenees, Southern Grampians, Strathbogie, Towong, Wangaratta, Wellington and Wodonga, and the alpine areas of Falls Creek, Mount Buller, Mount Hotham and Mount Stirling.

A number of changes were made to the Emergency Bushfire Response in Primary Industries Grant in July 2020 including:

• Removing the off-farm income threshold test for those farmers whose income is less than 50 per cent due to drought or who are still in the early phases of building up their businesses.
• Allowing the 'primary production' business income to come from primary production and/or production of goods from primary production (e.g. wine grown from grapes grown on your property)
• Extending the timeframe for reaching the 50% income threshold from three to eight years
• Removing the requirement to be registered for GST.

See the grant guidelines for more detail on all eligibility requirements.

Compensation for lost income or amounts claimed under other programs or through insurance cover are not eligible for grant assistance.

Applications together with supporting documentation must be submitted by 31 January 2021 via:

Post: Rural Finance, PO Box 1313, Bendigo Central 3552

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Fax: 5441 8901

For further information please contact Rural Finance on 1800 260 425.