In early 2009, bushfires devastated Victoria, causing unprecedented loss of life and property. The Victorian Coroner's Office confirmed that 173 people lost their lives during the fires, which directly impacted 51 townships, destroying over 2000 homes, along with many businesses, schools and kindergartens.
The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission delivered its final report on Saturday 31 July 2010. The 67 recommendations are focused on protecting human life, and are designed to reflect the shared responsibility that all Governments, fire agencies, communities and individuals have for minimising the prospect of a tragedy of this scale happening again. Further information can be found at Royal Commission Reports.
Recovery assistance package
The Victorian bushfires were extremely devastating, causing loss of life and property. In response, the Australian Government announced a comprehensive Recovery Assistance Package to address the psycho-social, economic, infrastructure, and environmental impacts. Assistance was provided to individuals, families, communities, businesses, primary producers and local governments. The Australian Government's financial contribution has included more than $465 million towards reconstruction and recovery efforts.
In October 2009, the Australian and Victorian Governments jointly released the Rebuilding Together: A Statewide Plan for Reconstruction and Recovery. Under this plan, $193 million went to projects to (i) replace major community facilities, including schools damaged or destroyed in the fires, (ii) support people as they rebuilt their lives and their homes, and (iii) kick-start the economic and environmental recovery of these communities.
A National Partnership Agreement between the Australian and Victorian Governments was in place to facilitate the Australian Government's contribution towards the Rebuilding Together Plan.
Following these devastating bushfires, the Australian Government encouraged the community to share ideas on how affected people could be best supported.
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Individual assistance
Financial Assistance
Other assistance for individuals
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Individual assistance
Financial Assistance
More than $82 million in direct financial assistance was provided to more than 63,000 adversely affected individuals through the Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment (AGDRP), the Income Recovery Subsidy and Funeral/Memorial Assistance.
Australian Government Disaster Recovery Payment
The AGDRP was available through Centrelink to people who were adversely affected by the Victorian bushfires. The AGDRP provided a one-off, immediate payment of $1000 per eligible adult and $400 per child.
AGDRP was available for people who had been seriously injured, who had lost their homes or whose homes had been directly damaged or were an immediate family member of a person who had been killed by the Victorian bushfires.
This payment closed on 7 August 2009.
Income Recovery Subsidy
The Income Recovery Subsidy provided assistance to employees, small business operators and farmers who lost income as a result of the bushfires. This Subsidy provided fortnightly payments equivalent to the maximum rate of Newstart allowance depending on the person's circumstances.
It was available to Australian residents or eligible foreign nationals who were 16 years of age, or older. Eligible foreign nationals included people who were on permanent visas (but who had not yet met the residency waiting period) and people who were on temporary skills or temporary family visas.
The Income Recovery Subsidy was announced on 10 February 2009, for an initial period of 13 weeks, and was extended for a further 13 weeks on 26 March 2009. A further extension of 13 weeks to 10 November 2009 was made to ensure employees, small businesses and farmers who continued to experience a loss of income as a result of the bushfires were financially supported and had ample time to transition to other longer term arrangements.
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Assistance for Funeral/Memorial and Related Costs
The Australian Government acknowledges the hardship faced by those families who lost loved ones. Assistance for funerals/memorials and related costs was made available to the immediate family member of an Australian or eligible foreign national who died or was declared missing as a direct result of the Victorian bushfires in January and February 2009.
Eligible foreign national included an individual on a permanent, temporary skills or temporary family visa who died or was declared missing as a direct result of the Victorian bushfires.
The assistance provided $5000 to one immediate family member for each deceased individual for funeral/memorial and other related costs. Centrelink worked with families to determine the most appropriate family member to receive this assistance.
Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements
The Australian Government helped to facilitate early assistance to disaster affected communities by supporting the Victorian Government under the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA).
Under the NDRRA, the Victorian Department of Human Services delivered:
- temporary living and re-establishment grants depending on the size of a household.
- temporary Living Expense grants up to a maximum of $8650.
- re-establishment grants with two components:
- a maximum payment of up to $8650 for repairs to structural damage to a residence, and
- a maximum payment of up to $8650 to replace essential household contents such as furnishings and electrical goods.
25 local government areas were eligible for assistance under the NDRRA. These were: Alpine, Baw Baw, Cardinia, Corangamite, Greater Bendigo, Hepburn, Horsham, Indigo, Latrobe, Macedon Ranges, Mitchell, Mount Alexander, Murrindindi, Nillumbik, Southern Grampians, Wangaratta, Wellington, West Wimmera, Whittlesea, Yarra Ranges, Lake Mountain Alpine Resort, South Gippsland, Knox, Greater Dandenong and Casey.
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Other assistance for individuals
Case management
The Victorian Bushfire Case Management Service was established to support people affected by the bushfires, helping with accommodation, finance, employment, education, counselling, health and legal services, and other personal assistance. It was delivered through a partnership arrangement with Australian Government agencies, state agencies, local government and funded not-for-profit organisations. This service operated for two years and closed in March 2011
Counselling support
The Australian Government provided $7.5 million of funding for mental health support to individuals and communities. This assistance built on services being provided through Centrelink social workers, psychologists and case managers.
To help affected communities reconnect and recover from the impact of the trauma:
- additional telephone-based counselling services were available;
- additional counselling services were provided through a $200,000 boost to five community organisations that delivered the Australian Government's Family Relationship Services Program: Centacare Sandhurst, Goulburn Valley Family Day Care, Eastern Access Community Health, Upper Hume Community Health and Centacare Melbourne;
- two free DVDs on post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder were produced and distributed by the Australian Centre for Posttraumatic Mental Health and the Rural Health Education Foundation;
- grants of $1000 were provided to General Practitioner practices to enable immediate infrastructure modification to accommodate additional mental health staff and functions;
- the Rural Workforce Agency Victoria coordinated volunteer health professionals in affected areas, and administered assistance provided to doctors and nurses for travel and accommodation costs; and
- generalist financial counselling services, funded by both Australian and Victorian Governments, were also available for people affected by the Bushfires.
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Clean-up and demolition
The Australian and Victorian Governments provided support to help communities rebuild through a program for site clean-up and demolition. Grocon was contracted to deliver this assistance, which was voluntary and offered free of charge.
Relaxation of Newstart requirements
Job seekers who volunteered to help with clean-up and recovery efforts, or who lived in locations where job opportunities had effectively been eliminated, were shown leniency and were not asked to look for work for an initial period of 13 weeks.
Job seekers who were personally impacted by the bushfires (including, but not limited to, damage to housing and loss of loved ones) may also have been subject to a waiver of compliance obligations for a period.
Recovering your Proof of Identity
Working together, Medicare, Centrelink and the Victorian Government helped affected individuals re-establish their identity, to ensure payments were delivered to people efficiently during this difficult time.
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Support for Older Australians
The Australian Government increased its support for older Victorians affected by the bushfires by providing an additional $1.5 million in emergency funding to help cover costs of emergency nursing home care and mechanical aids/personal care items lost in the bushfires. As a part of this funding, the Australian Government provided up to $500,000 to the Victorian Government to provide additional Home and Community Care services.
In a one-off measure, the Australian Government removed the need for aged care assessments for older Victorians affected by the bushfires so they could access a short-term or temporary nursing home or community care as quickly as possible.
Legal advice
The Australian Government provided $220,000 for Victorian community legal centres to help Victorians affected by the bushfires.
For more information visit Disaster Legal Help or call Disaster Legal Help Victoria on 1800 113 432.
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Community, business and other assistance
Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA)
Small businesses and primary producers
The Australian and Victorian Governments provided support to those small businesses and primary producers directly affected by the Victorian bushfires through a $51 million joint package. These payments closed on 18 August 2009.
The available assistance included:
- a one-off grant of $5000 for immediate repair and restoration costs, with additional funds available up to a maximum total of $25,000 for eligible small businesses or primary producers with significant damage
- free access to professional business advice and counselling service
- a concessional interest rate loans scheme, allowing borrowing of up to $200,000 at 3.2 per cent interest over five years
- a one-off special circumstances bushfire relief grant of $5000 for small businesses and farmers that missed out on a business recovery grant provided the business earned less than $100,000 a year from other sources.
The grants to primary producers and small businesses were administered by Rural Finance.
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Community Recovery Fund
The Australian and Victorian Governments established a $10 million Community Recovery Fund following the bushfires. The Fund addressed longer-term recovery and covered a range of projects to restore community infrastructure, improve community preparedness and build resilience.
In recognition of the importance of sporting facilities in regional and rural communities, $3 million from the Community Recovery Fund was set aside for rebuilding and reparation works for sports clubs in bushfire affected areas.
To help with the healing process, $2.5 million from the Community Recovery Fund was set aside for memorials.
The Government provided $1.75 million for Community Development Officers to work with individual local councils and communities to assist with the delivery of recovery services, community development programs and the development of community recovery plans.
Community grants funding of $2.75 million was allocated to local councils to support: regeneration of community spaces
- recording bushfire history within communities
- activities for young people
- community information activities
- additional community projects.
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Tourism Industry Support Package
The Australian and Victorian Governments supported regional tourism operators affected economically by the bushfires through a $10 million Tourism Industry Support Package.
The Package rolled out between March 2009 and June 2011 provided:
- $6 million towards a cooperative marketing and brand rebuilding program to promote tourism in economically-affected areas
- $1 million to bring forward postponed events
- $3 million to assist with enhancing and redeveloping of tourism and visitor facility infrastructure in national, state and regional parks adjoining bushfire-affected areas.
Emergency relief
The Australian Government announced an additional $80.4 million over three years in Emergency Relief Funding. The Australian Government provided an additional $6 million of immediate assistance for families affected by the bushfires.
Social housing
The Australian Government provided $2.4 million, under the pre-existing $6.4 billion Social Housing Initiative, towards building 11 affordable housing units in Marysville and Kinglake.
Local government
The Australian Government provided councils in the natural disaster affected areas of Victoria with the opportunity to reprioritise their projects under its $250 million Regional and Local Community Infrastructure Program. This enabled councils to better support of locals affected by this natural disaster.
All Victorian councils had their local government Financial Assistance Grants brought forward from 15 May 2009 to 23 February 2009.
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Education
Bushfire affected areas were given priority access to draw on Victoria's share of the Australian Government's $14.7 billion Building the Education Revolution Program. A total of $1.85 million was directly allocated to reconstruct facilities in three bushfire affected schools (Marysville Primary School, Middle King Lake, and Strathewen Primary School).
Families affected by the Victorian Bushfires were able to access the Special Child Care Benefit to help cover the full fees of an approved child care service for up to 13 weeks.
Caring for our Country Bushfire Recovery Program
The Australian Government provided $10.8 million to the Caring for our Country Bushfire Recovery Program so landholders and community, local government and non-government organisations could undertake targeted natural resource management bushfire recovery activities in eligible fire affected regions of Victoria.
Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority
The Victorian Bushfire Reconstruction and Recovery Authority was established by the Victorian Government in partnership with the Australian Government to oversee and coordinate the immediate recovery and rebuilding program.
The 'Rebuilding Together Plan' committed $193 million to deliver hundreds of projects with $117 million from the Australian and Victorian Governments, $56 million from the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund and $20 million in philanthropic and corporate donations.
The Fire Recovery Unit, established on 1 July 2011, is now the key point of contact for individuals and communities affected by the 2009 Victorian bushfires.
Further information on the Fire Recovery Unit can be found on the Regional Development Victoria website.
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2009 Victorian Bushfires Appeal Fund
The 2009 Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund, set up by the Victorian Government in partnership with the Australian Government and the Australian Red Cross, closed on 17 April 2009, raising $389 million.
The Australian and Victorian Governments each committed $2 million to the Fund.
An independent panel of community leaders chaired by the Hon Pat J McNamara oversaw the operation of the Appeal Fund. Some of the payments and grants available included:
- Compassionate Bereavement Payments
- Initial Home Dislocation Payments
- Severe Injury Payments
- Water and Smoke Damage Repair Grants
- Tools of the Trade Grants
- Rebuilding and Recovery Grants
- Grants to small businesses and individuals who provided support to communities in the aftermath of the bushfires and experienced hardship themselves
- Rural Properties Recovery Assistance payments for individual landowners with five or more hectares
- Severely Injured Victims assistance to aid in transition from hospital to home
- Needs based grants for homeowners whose principal place of residence was destroyed or damaged
- Assistance packages to local councils for community-based initiatives counselling.
For further information visit the Victorian Bushfire Appeal Fund website.
Reports on the recovery process over the last five years can be found on the Regional Development Victoria website.
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