Over a year after bushfires ravaged the Queanbeyan-Palerang region, government funding has been instrumental in rebuilding the community.
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Under the joint Australian Government-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), $47 million has been committed to the repair of roads affected by fire and flood damage in Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council (QPRC).
A total of $20.54 million have been committed for fire recovery works. Meanwhile, $26.45 million have also been committed for works after flood recovery for events that took place in August 2020 and February-March 2021.
"The road works include re-sheeting, clearing culverts, removal of burnt and hazardous vegetation, new bridges and crossings as well as replacing signage and pavement," a QPRC spokesperson said.
"Many works have been completed including the replacement of bridges on Monga Lane, Forbes Creek Road and Little Bombay Road and significant amounts of roadside vegetation clearing in areas like Nerriga that were impacted by the fires.
"Other major works yet to be completed include significant re-sheeting for roads like Little Bombay Road, Sawyers Ridge Road, Araluen Road and Cooma Road that were affected by flooding events."
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The road works are fully funded and the council has engaged contractors to begin works on a vast list of over 200 works.
Meanwhile, the council also received $1.5m to support recovery efforts after the 2019-20 bushfires which were used to support recovery and resilience efforts.
It was used to help fire-affected communities, remove burnt debris, provide emergency and fire relief services including BlazeAid, setting up and running the Disaster Recovery Hub in Braidwood as well as supporting local wildlife recovery groups.
Also, the Disaster Assistance Hub has begun its new project of facilitating new Community Resilience Plans with those communities that were most impacted by the 2019-20 fires.
A further $262,000 has recently been secured to support a rural support worker over the next two years to improve community outcomes and resilience to future events.
QPRC was also successful in receiving grants of $454,000 under the NSW Government's Bushfire Community Recovery and Resilience Funding which will be used to install solar panels for RFS sheds. This will help secure power in emergency situations as well as a new wildlife mapping initiative to better understand local species populations and their recovery after disaster events.
