Flood Recovery Grants

Sam Spina from Queensland Rural and Industry Development Authority (QRIDA) visited the region last week to discuss government loans and grants with local businesses.

In conjunction with the Hinchinbrook Chamber of Commerce, Sam Spina presented a one-on-one business forum to help businesses understand how to be eligible for grant applications and get back on their feet.

“You need to earn the majority of your income, and spend the majority of your time on the Small Business Enterprise,” he explained.

“Your business has to restart again. They're not going to give you money if you close your business down. You need to provide insurance details to make sure that you're not insured. If you are insured, we'd expect you to draw on that first and then claim through the grant.

“It is a $25,000 grant for businesses that have been directly impacted, so flood water through the business, and that's non-repayable. You can access the first $5,000 on the basis of quotes, and then after that, it's a reimbursement type scheme, so you spend the money, and we'll reimburse it for you.”

Hinchinbrook Chamber of Commerce President Mary Brown said the turnout at the event was good, and the Chamber has been working hard since the flooding event.

“Chamber has been reaching out since the event to try and understand the impact, and we recognise that it's probably only now that people are having the chance to put their head up, start to look at their business, and understand whether they are going to have insurance, or not going to have insurance, and getting their head around the impact here that is starting to hit,” explained Mary Brown.

“We would encourage them to please reach out to Chamber. We are doing all we possibly can to advocate on behalf of the business community, by collecting data, by feeding it through to the relevant government authorities, so that the government can have a comprehension of exactly how much impact has been in this community.

“That's what we are trying to do, lobby and advocate on behalf of businesses, to get the maximum amount of support we can from the government.”