Future Drought Fund backing drought resilience leaders in Queensland and Victoria

The Hon David Littleproud MP
Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia
  • $11m invested in Future Drought Fund’s Drought Resilience Leaders program
  • 17 recipients selected for a first round of Community Engagement Grants
  • Grants support local leaders to take forward drought preparedness initiatives with their community
  • Rural and regional communities in Queensland and Victoria will see a $68,000 investment in local drought leadership through the Future Drought Fund’s (FDF) Drought Resilience Leaders program.

    Minister for Agriculture and Northern Australia David Littleproud said 17 recipients undertaking 6 projects in Queensland and Victoria had been selected for a Community Engagement Grant as part of the FDF’s Drought Resilience Leaders program.

    “We are building and backing local leadership to prepare for drought. We know the right solutions to drought need to be driven out of each community and region, not Canberra”, Minister Littleproud said.

    “We’ve recently supported a cohort of people from Central West Queensland and the Goulburn Valley in Victoria to go through leadership development.”

    “These grants support those locals to put their newly developed leadership skills to work, through community projects to build drought preparedness.”

    Projects include:

    • Community events to build awareness and access to mental health tools and services, which are so important in the tough times such as drought
    • An investigation into potential solutions to the impact labour shortages in Central West Queensland are having on drought recovery and resilience
    • Field days and “virtual tours” supporting community sharing of experiences with rangelands management that reduce drought impacts on production
    • Bringing the community of Winton together on the topic of drought resilience around a project to create a long-term drought resilient community garden

    “These are the first grants under this part of the program, that relate to the first 2 pilot regions where we are building and backing drought resilience leaders”.

    “We’re also building drought resilience leaders in 10 other regions, and they too will be able to apply for Community Extension Grants to put their leadership skills to work in their community.”

    The Drought Resilience Leaders program is a partnership between the Australian Government and the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation Limited (ARLF).

    The Drought Resilience Leaders program is part of the $5 billion FDF, creating a new generation of young and emerging leaders and facilitating a culture of learning and knowledge sharing throughout Australia’s agricultural-dependent communities.

    /Public Release. View in full here.