Rural Landholders Grant

Rural Landholders Grant (February/March 2022)

Grants farmer with flooded field

Support for landholders and oyster farmers in declared NSW LGAs affected by catastrophic flooding which began in February 2022, and who are not eligible for existing flood support programs.

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Key information

  • Status: Closed
  • Grant amount: Up to $25,000
  • Application opened: 30 March 2022
  • Application closed: 30 June 2023

Program objective

The Rural Landholders Grants are available to eligible landholders who were affected by the NSW storms and floods that occurred from February and March 2022 onwards. The targeted assistance is for rural landholders who do not qualify for existing programs to support the long-term recovery of impacted regions. The program provides assistance to storm and flood-affected landholders in eligible local government areas (LGAs), to support the next phase of their recovery. 

This program is administered by Rural Assistance Authority.

Eligibility

Who can apply 

Rural landholders who:

  • have suffered direct damage to their assets as a result of the storms and floods that occurred from 22 February 2022 onwards  and
  • are ineligible for declared natural disaster assistance because they do not meet the 50% of income from primary production requirement
  • are not eligible for existing flood support programs (SDG, SCSG and other natural disaster assistance)
  • have a holding of at least 10 ha and minimum primary production income of $20,000 per annum can apply.

Who can't apply

You will not be eligible for a grant if:

  • you have received or are eligible to receive, financial assistance for costs associated with the items described in the 'How funding may be used' section from another government assistance scheme.
  • you are entitled to receive a payment under an insurance policy for costs directly associated with items from the 'How funding may be used' section. You will be eligible for a grant for the portion of costs that are not covered by your insurance, or for amounts in excess of the value insured.
  • you have already applied for this grant in relation to the same property.

What you can apply for

Costs of clean up, reinstatement activities and emergency measures associated with the immediate recovery of primary production enterprises.

Eligible claims may include:

  • hiring or leasing equipment or materials to clean premises, property or equipment.
  • removing and disposing of debris, damaged goods and materials including injured or dead livestock.
  • repairing or replacing fencing and/or other essential property infrastructure.
  • purchasing and transporting fodder or feed for livestock.
  • replacing livestock.
  • replacing lost or damaged plants, salvaging crops, repairing or restoring fields.
  • repairing, reconditioning or replacing essential plant or equipment.
  • maintaining the health of livestock.
  • paying additional wages to an employee to assist with clean-up work (above and beyond normal wage expenditure, i.e. day-to-day staffing).
  • repairing buildings (except dwellings, unless they are used for staff accommodation).
  • other claims consistent with

    File

    Rural Landholders Grant Guidelines (PDF 400.82KB) and agreed by the Rural Assistance Authority (RAA).

What you can't apply for

  • damage to residential properties or dwellings.
  • damages that are covered by insurance.
  • own labour (including existing staff and own equipment).
  • expansion projects, or for areas that were not in active production, however this should not prevent sensible preparation for future events.
  • loss of income.

Most recent recipients

All recipients (92)

What your application needs to include

You can download the complete

File

Rural Landholders Grant Guidelines (PDF 400.82KB)

.

 

1

Prepare your application with this checklist

If you have been approved for assistance by the RAA and provided the following documents to us in the past 12 months, you may not need to provide them again.

  • personal tax returns of all members of the business
  • most recent farm business tax returns
  • Local Land Service rates notice
  • quotes, estimates, photos, tax invoices (if you have them)
  • read the Terms and Conditions that go with

    File

    Rural Landholders Grant Guidelines (PDF 400.82KB) , from Page 3.
2

Address the eligibility criteria

You must be a rural landholder

  • be normally charged rates under the Local Land Services Act 2013 and hold property of at least 10 hectares (24.7 acres) in size, or
  • hold a Class A Aquaculture Permit under the Fisheries Management Act 1984 authorising aquaculture lease area of at least 1 hectare, and;

Note: The RAA will assess the bona fides of your primary production business (see Section 9: Definitions) on a case by case basis if you do not meet these minimum area requirements. 

You must have a primary production business

  • your business must have an Australian Business Number (ABN), and
  • your business must undertake primary production as verified through the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) Code subdivisions 01 Agriculture, 02 Aquaculture, 03 Forestry and Logging, 041 Fishing, and 
  • you must not receive the majority of your income from primary production, and
  • you must earn at least $20,000 per annum from primary production, and
  • you must earn no more than $180,000 from off-farm income, as individuals, directors or shareholders. That is, if there are three people involved in a primary production business, they can each earn up to $180,000 from income that is not derived from the applying primary production business. The applicant will need to submit one or multiple self-declaration(s), confirming that each individual involved, does not earn more than $180,000 from off-farm income, and
  • where your earnings from primary production is less than $20,000 per annum, you may nonetheless be eligible for a grant if it can be demonstrated that in the ordinary course of business you would meet that requirement, but your earnings from primary production are currently reduced due to seasonal conditions or biosecurity events, and
  • you must have been engaged in carrying on the primary production business when affected by this event, and
  • you must intend to re-establish or continue the primary production business, and
  • you must not have gross off farm assets exceeding $5,000,000 (excluding funds in a registered superannuation fund), and
  • your business must not be a public company under the meaning of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). 

You must be impacted by this event

  • be in a Local Government Area (LGA) declared as natural disaster and approved for this program, and
  • be able to demonstrate that you have personally faced costs for clean-up activities, losses or damages beyond the vicinity of your residential dwelling, arising from the declared natural disaster, and
  • have a record of tax invoices and proof of payments for your clean-up activities, losses or damages OR you have quotations for clean-up activities, losses or damages.
3

Address the assessment criteria

  • Applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria.
  • The RAA reserves the right to request further information from you or from any business or individual you have engaged, to assist in assessing your application and to verify any information provided in your application. Failure to provide such information may result in the RAA refusing your application.
  • The RAA reserves the right to refuse an application where eligibility criteria are not met, or where you do not or cannot provide sufficient information for the RAA to determine if eligibility criteria have been met.
  • The RAA can put an application on hold where the applicant is under investigation or has been charged in relation to the fraudulent receipt of grants under this or other RAA programs.
  • Complete applications will be assessed in order of receipt. Incomplete applications will not enter the assessment queue until all required information is provided.
  • Applicants should note that past financial assistance under this program or any other program is not a reliable indicator of eligibility for future financial assistance under this program.
  • Applications submitted may be subject to audit by the RAA or its agents in order to determine compliance with

    File

    Rural Landholders Grant Guidelines (PDF 400.82KB)
  • Before applying for financial assistance under this program, you should seek advice from your legal, business or financial advisers about the tax implications of this financial assistance.
  • You will be expected to provide a range of supporting documentation that may include the latest Local Land Services rates notice, Aquaculture Permit, Local Council rate notice; Tax Returns and Financial Statement for the applying entity.
  • You may be asked for a copy of your insurance policy. 

After the application is submitted

Successful applications will be decided by: The Rural Assistance Authority.

Applications will be assessed and both successful and unsuccessful applicants will be notified.

We will publish successful recipients on nsw.gov.au as grants are awarded.

Please note: Individual recipient information will be removed to ensure statutory compliance with the provisions of the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act (PPIP) 1988.

In addition, the Minister for Agriculture and Western NSW has approved a policy exception to not publish non-individual recipient data. For non-competitive programs that have a high-volume of low-value grants, which are predominantly awarded to individuals, it is not practical or feasible to separate applicant information and doing so would adversely affect the achievement of government policy outcomes.

Support and contact

If you need assistance with submitting your application, please contact us per below:

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