The $500,000 grant program aims to improve the preparedness and response of Local Governments, and their communities, to the impacts of emergencies on animal welfare and biosecurity, and to improve the animal's chances of survival and recovery.

Grant applications will remain open until COB Monday, 14 September.

Grants are available up to a maximum of $10,000 (ex GST). Collaboration with other Local Governments is encouraged, and to that end a collaborative grant is offered, which provides up to $5000 (ex GST) per number of Local Governments within the collaboration - i.e a collaboration of 5 Local Governments = a maximum Grant allocation of $25,000 (ex GST).

Grant recipients will be advised of the outcome of their application by mid-October, with work to be undertaken by Local Governments between October and May, 2021. 

WALGA hosted a webinar to provide information and answer questions on the grants earlier this month. The webinar is available to view here. 

As WA is currently stable in Phase 4 of easing of restrictions, WALGA sees the value in transitioning this network to have a focus on the COVID-19 recovery. Local Governments can ask questions and share files through this network.
 
WALGA encourages all Local Government Officers and Elected Members interested in recovery to join the network.

The orange pouch is a waterproof PVC document wallet filled with educational material to help residents with the process of being prepared and creating a plan for themselves, their families and pets in the case of any emergency, whether in the form of a fire, flood, earthquake or any other emergency event. It can be used to store important documents like passports, insurance policies and birth certificates. It also contains general emergency contact numbers and space to add other numbers considered necessary. The pouch is orange to ensure it is easily identifiable and stands out. 

The Shire aims to use this project to educate local residents on the benefits of being prepared for emergencies such as the December 2019 fires in the Stirling Ranges, which resulted in many families having to evacuate their homes.

Front and back view of the pouch

The State Emergency Management Policy Branch is conducting consultation via Social Pinpoint

On the State Emergency Management Policy Branch Consultation Homepage you can view all current consultations, including the Local Recovery Guideline consultation

On the Local Recovery Guideline Consultation Page you will be able to:

Please submit all feedback by COB Wednesday, 14 October.

Eligible Local Governments will receive an email with details of the grant program and have until Tuesday, 29 September to submit their application. Successful applicants will be notified in late November.

The State Government established the Mitigation Activity Fund to provide on-ground bushfire treatment activities for extreme, very high or high bushfire risks on Crown lands that are managed by the Local Government. 

All Local Governments with an Office of Bushfire Risk Management-endorsed Bushfire Risk Management Plan are eligible to apply.

Since 2017, the State Government has funded 37 Local Governments to carry out more than 2500 mitigation activities, a contribution of well over $20 million which is creating a safer State. 

The next funding round is expected to be open in April next year.

On Monday, 22 June, BCoE staff including Traditional Fire Programs Coordinator Wayne Ampetyane Davis and Traditional and Cultural Fire Officer Clifton Tjapanangka Payirntarri Bieundurry, met with the Undalup Association Board.
 
The Undalup Association incorporates cultural burning using traditional fire management methods and has worked with the City of Busselton and Shire of Augusta-Margaret River to re-establish cultural fire practices on local reserves.
 
The purpose of the visit was to meet with the Association’s key representatives, listen to their stories and discuss ways of working together.
 
The BCoE’s key focus at the moment is to connect with Aboriginal groups and organisations across the State to learn about their land management activities and understand how the BCoE can support them, particularly in their cultural burning practices.
 
Undalup has a successful cultural awareness program incorporating cultural burning so BCoE will work very closely to support the implementation of more cultural burning training on designated sites in the region moving forward.

These courses have been constructed specifically to address the fundamental skills required to operate effectively in the Local Government Emergency Management environment.

Due to the current emergency we are experiencing, WALGA is offering these eLearning courses free of charge from now until Thursday, 31 December.
 
Emergency Management Fundamentals (eLearning)
Available now online
 
AIIMS Awareness (Australasian Inter-Service Incident Management System)
Available now online.