Rural Landholder Recovery Grant Scheme

A rural landholder is an entity that –

a) is the owner, or lessee under a long term lease, of relevant land on which the landholder carries out a primary production enterprise; and

b) was carrying out the primary production enterprise on the relevant land at the time the eligible disaster caused loss or damaged to the enterprise.

Grant funding is not guaranteed at any stage of the application process and QRIDA is only able to approve applications subject to the availability of funds.

Normal staffing costs are ineligible unless it can be demonstrated that additional costs are incurred for clean-up and reinstatement purposes.

• Permanent employees (including permanent full-time and permanent part-time): only the cost of additional hours worked over and above their normal work hours for clean-up and reinstatement may be eligible.

• Contractors, casual or temporary employees: only the cost of hours worked specifically for clean-up and reinstatement may be eligible.

• Business owner: not eligible to claim a wage for clean-up and reinstatement.

• Evidence required to substantiate a claim may include:

  • invoices from contractors and payroll summaries signed by the applicant verifying staff, wages cost and activity undertaken for clean-up and reinstatement.

Yes, you may potentially receive both a Disaster Assistance Loan for a small business and a Rural Landholder Recovery Grant.  You may also be eligible to receive assistance under the Special Disaster Recovery Grants for a small business.

You however may not receive a Rural Landholder Recovery Grant in addition to Disaster Assistance Loan primary producers or a Special Disaster Recovery Grant for primary producers.  

You are able to use relatives to repair your damage as long as transactions are retained at arm’s length and conducted in the same way as with any other contractor. Any contractors used must have an ABN and provide a tax invoice and official receipt for work completed. QRIDA may request additional information in these circumstances to confirm the validity of the claim.

You are not eligible for assistance if you are entitled to receive a payment under an insurance policy for costs directly associated with eligible activities. However, you may be eligible for a grant for costs that are not covered by insurance, or for amounts in excess of the value insured.

Applicants must claim on any applicable insurance policy, including business continuity, prior to seeking reimbursement under the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement.

The Scheme does not cover repairing houses or repairing or replacing household goods.

However, you can apply for assistance to repair buildings that are not used as a dwelling. The repair of buildings must be essential for the immediate resumption of the primary production enterprise. 

Yes, you are able to claim assistance for the actual costs of any additional labour or fuel and oil incurred in the use of this plant and equipment for clean-up and reinstatement activities for the disaster event.

Yes, as long as you can demonstrate that you as tenant (lessee) are primarily responsible for the cost of the eligible clean-up and repairs.

A lease is a legal contract that defines in broad terms the responsibilities for landlord (lessor) and tenant (lessee) in relation to repairs and maintenance. Often such leases are supplemented with other documents outlining insurances, improvements and operational matters.

QRIDA also recognise that the lessor and lessee may from time to time agree to reassign responsibility for activities within the context of their lease arrangement if both parties concur.

An applicant is required to provide a copy of their lease and any other documents to QRIDA to demonstrate that they are primarily responsible for the eligible costs being claimed.

QRIDA may also accept a co-signed statutory declaration if this assists the applicant in demonstrating they are responsible for costs being claimed or they are unable to immediately resume farming activities without meeting the cost of reinstatement of the damaged property themselves.

Such a co-signed statutory declaration for an applicant who is the lessee (tenant) should clearly state:

1. That the lessor will not be meeting the costs of reinstatement of the damaged property for which the lessee (applicant) has made the grant application
2. That the applicant (lessee) cannot immediately resume business activities without meeting the cost of reinstatement of the damaged property themselves
3. The nature and extent of damage impacting on the immediate resumption of business activities
4. Details of the reinstatement costs being claimed by the applicant which differ from the existing lease contract or other documents outlining the liabilities/responsibilities of each party and which have been agreed between the parties
5. That these same costs are not covered by insurance or other government assistance.

Please note the statutory declaration does not guarantee approval of the application, but simply provides QRIDA with information clarifying liabilities and responsibilities in respect to a leased property, specifically relating to damage and costs, in order to undertake an assessment of a grant application.

QRIDA is committed to ensuring due administrative processes are undertaken with the decisioning of applications for Government assistance.

When making decisions on applications, as well as the internal review of a decision, QRIDA follows the QRIDA Decision-Making Policy and Procedure.

You can view this Policy and Procedure on the Reviewing a decision page.

Yes, you are entitled to a decision review. See reviewing a decision for more information.