Last week the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the activation of recovery grants for small businesses that have been impacted by the Queensland floods.

This money has been will be made available for small businesses and not-for-profit organisations that have been affected by the floods, in the council areas of Townsville, Cloncurry, McKinlay, Richmond and Flinders, with grants of up to $25,000.

What assistance is available?

In exceptional circumstances a grant up to a maximum of $25,000 is available to assist eligible small businesses with an:

• Initial grant amounts to assist you with cleaning and reinstatement costs immediately following the disaster event – up to a total of $5,000; and
• Subsequent grant amounts to assist you with additional cleaning and reinstatement costs – up to a total of $20,000.

Please note all claims must be supported by either evidence of damage and quotes (initial grant) or evidence of damage, invoices and proof of payment (subsequent grant). Note, if claiming a subsequent grant then evidence of payment must be supplied for both the initial and subsequent grant amounts.

How can the assistance help you?

The assistance enables you to pay for costs associated with cleaning and reinstatement activities.

Examples of eligible activities:

• hiring or leasing equipment or materials essential to clean-up or for immediately resuming business activities
• removing and disposing of debris, damaged goods and material
• repairing buildings or repairing or replacing fittings in buildings (business premises)
• replacing lost or damaged stock essential for immediately resuming trading
• leasing temporary premises to resume operations
• engaging a person to clean or to conduct a safety inspection of premises
• paying additional wages to an employee to assist with the clean-up work

Assistance under this scheme is not intended to compensate for loss of income suffered as a result of the disaster event and assistance provided is subject to future audit.

Special Disaster Assistance Recovery Grants are subject to terms and conditions which are detailed in the Scheme Guidelines. For more information click HERE or call 1800 623 946.