The Hope Vale Aboriginal Shire Council has become the latest among dozens of councils in eastern Australia to be offered disaster assistance after floods.
Hope Vale will get help through jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA), along with the Cook and Douglas Shire Councils.
Public infrastructure in all three Far North Queensland LGAs was damaged by rain and winds from Tropical Cyclone Tiffany.
Also offered DRFA assistance this week were the LGAs of Carpentaria and Kowanyama, which were impacted by flooding from Tropical Cyclone Seth in the New Year period.
Other LGAs affected by Seth and eligible for DRFA payments include Bundaberg, Cherbourg, Gold Coast, Fraser Coast, Gympie, North Burnet, and South Burnett
Carpentaria, along with the Mareeba Shire Council, will get payments to help cover clean-up costs and road repairs caused by severe thunderstorms associated with a low-pressure though earlier this month.
More than a dozen other councils in Western Queensland have received offers of DRFA help as the impacts of ongoing floods there continue to be tallied.
They include Barcoo, Boulia, Bulloo, Burke, Cloncurry, Diamantina, Flinders, Longreach, McKinlay, Mount Isa, Paroo, Quilpie, and Winton.
In NSW, the Bland Shire has been offered DRFA funding, joining other LGAs whose public infrastructure was damaged by severe storms and flooding last November.
They include Balranald, Bathurst, Bega Valley, Bland, Blayney, Blue Mountains, Bogan, Bourke, Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Cabonne, Cobar, Coonamble, Cootamundra-Gundagai, Cowra, Dubbo, Eurobodalla, Federation, Forbes, Gilgandra, Glen Innes Severn, Goulburn-Mulwaree, Greater Hume, Gunnedah, Gwydir, Hilltops, Inverell, Kyogle, Lachlan, Lismore, Lithgow, Liverpool Plains, Lockhart, Mid-Western, Moree Plains, Muswellbrook, Narrabri, Narromine, Oberon, Orange, Parkes, Port Macquarie-Hastings, Queanbeyan-Palerang, Richmond Valley, Shoalhaven, Singleton, Snowy Monaro, Snowy Valleys, Tamworth, Tenterfield, Upper Hunter, Upper Lachlan, Walcha, Walgett, Warren, Warrumbungle, Weddin, Wentworth, Yass Valley and the Unincorporated Areas of NSW.
In Victoria, meanwhile, Indigo Shire, Macedon Shire, Mildura Shire, Mount Alexander Shire, Towong Shire, Wellington Shire, and the City of Wodonga have been deemed eligible for DRFA payments after floods and storms in late January.
In related news, resilience and recovery projects in the local government areas of Charters Towers, Etheridge, Hinchinbrook, McKinlay, and Winton and will benefit from co-contribution grants of between $10,000 and $200,000.
More than $590,000 has been disbursed as part of the North Queensland Recovery and Resilience Grants (Stream 2) and will fund projects ranging from soil and grass cover initiatives to controlling invasive weeds and remote operation of floodgates.