Disaster assistance has been made available to help communities in the Gascoyne and Pilbara regions recover from flooding associated with a Tropical Low that lashed the Western Australian coastline in March this year.
Assistance is being provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
Minister for Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud said assistance would ensure impacted communities bounced back quickly from the heavy rain and damaging winds of the Tropical Low.
“Both the Commonwealth and the State will be picking up part of the bill to fix key local roads and community infrastructure,” Minister Littleproud said.
“Reconnecting parts of the community by fixing roads helps speed up the overall recovery.
“We will continue to stand by these communities and will make more assistance available if needed.”
Western Australian Minister for Emergency Services Francis Logan said rainfall during the event had resulted in significant damage to critical infrastructure across the Midwest Gascoyne and Pilbara.
“The Gascoyne catchment was heavily impacted by this Tropical Low with 70 millimetres of rain falling in Gascoyne Junction in just 24 hours,” Minister Logan said.
“This financial support will greatly assist those impacted communities who are faced with extensive costs to repair their local roads.”
The Commonwealth and Western Australian governments will continue to monitor the impacts of the weather event and will extend the funding to other local government areas if required.
Information on disaster assistance is available on the Australian Government’s Disaster Assist website at disasterassist.gov.au
