Recreational Fishing Trust grants December 2025

Download the grant guidelines to see all the sections that need to be addressed in the applications portal. 

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.

General assessment criteria

The following assessment criteria apply to all applications:

• Funding applications must relate to the improvement of recreational fishing and provide a high level of recreational fishing benefit (including a high extent of benefit to recreational fishers against other user groups).
• Projects must include measures to enhance, maintain or protect recreational fishing (as outlined in Sections 234(2a) and 235(2a) of the Fisheries Management Act 1994).
• Applications must be completed in full, with sufficient detail to enable a sound assessment.
• Relative team expertise to deliver the project including adequate track record of past project delivery (where relevant).
• Project methodology must be technically sound and utilise best practice.
• Applications must have an accurate, cost effective budget which shows value for money. Contributing funding or ‘in-kind’ contributions by the applicant and other project partners should be included in the budget, where relevant.
• Applications must show stakeholder support for the project (where relevant).
• Applications must show evidence of or commitment to obtain landowner consent (where relevant). 
• Project activities and outputs should not be of a commercial nature (including running of organisations/clubs), or materials developed for a primarily commercial purpose and must be made available free to the public. 
• Projects must provide unimpeded general public access and should not be on private land (where relevant) or land with no free public access.  
• Contingency funding components of applications will not be supported for funding.  
• Applications must not include costs for purchase of vehicles or vessels for recreational or commercial purposes. 
• Where other suitable funding sources are available, applications must outline how these sources have been investigated and deemed to be unsuitable (where relevant) including Boating Now Program and Aboriginal Fishing Trust Fund.  

Platform specific assessment criteria

Recreational Fishing Infrastructure and Access:

• Project activities must not include building club premises or improving club facilities that are only available to organisation/club members. 
• Project activities must not include dredging activities (this is usually the responsibility of local authorities). 
• Applications must include a detailed description or design drawings of the infrastructure to be delivered, including materials to be used and the dimensions of proposed infrastructure.  
• Projects should not include construction of general public amenities such as toilet blocks etc. (unless direct relevance to recreational fishing can be clearly demonstrated). However, general public amenities may be an important part of an overall project and could be included as part of the applicant’s contribution to the project. For example, a local land manager might apply for funding for a fishing platform and their contribution to the project could be to fund the adjoining car parking. 
• Infrastructure should be accessible (where relevant).

Recreational Fishing Education:

• Projects must have measurable and direct benefits to recreational fishing. 
• Project activities must not include fishing competitions or tournaments. 
• Applications must demonstrate suitable recreational fishing expertise within the project team to deliver the project.