Crown Reserves Improvement Fund - General 2026-27

• The project must be on NSW Crown managed land (including land managed by an appointed Crown Land Manager)
• Activity must be consistent with s12.29 of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 - Crown Land Management Act 2016 No 58
• The application must relate to a project or activity that has not yet commenced
• The Crown land manager must have no outstanding overdue CRIF final project reports as at the round closing date
• Non-council Crown land managers must have submitted their 2024-25 annual report to the Department by the round closing date via the Reserve Manager portal - CrownTracker Portal (nsw.gov.au)
• The application must be authorised by the official manager of a Crown reserve
• Appropriate quotes / cost estimates must be provided with the application
• The application must address the funding round objective
• A general application must have one project per reserve. (Do not submit multiple projects on the one application)
• Minimum grant amount is $50,000 (inc GST) and maximum amount is $1,000,000(inc GST)

For more information, please refer to the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund | Crown Lands website.

Each applicant, as part of an application response, must confirm that they meet the eligibility criteria.

Applicants that do not address the eligibility criteria in full may be excluded from the application process at the department's discretion.

Community Impact - 40%

Demonstrate how effectively the project will contribute to the social, economic, cultural and/or environmental advancement of the community by:

• Maintaining or increasing public access, amenity and use of the reserve
• Supporting social cohesion and participation in community life
• Enabling people with accessibility requirements or living with a disability to be included
• Delivering a service or infrastructure to enable Aboriginal people to access, care for, protect and manage land
• Conserving heritage values and/or natural values, and/or
• Creating employment or business opportunities

Reserve Utilisation - 40%

Measured by annual visitation numbers. Usage criteria – the higher the "reserve annual visitation" the higher the score: annual visitation >= 1,000,000 scores 40; annual visitation < 10,000 scores 0 

Deliverability and Affordability - 20%

• Value for money – estimated costs through competitive, multiple quotes or a demonstrated procurement process
• Demonstrated capacity and capability to deliver the project
• Any co-contributions from other sources (cash or in-kind)
• Ability to access other funding sources for the project