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Department of Agriculture

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  1. Home
  2. Agriculture and land
  3. Farming, food and rural support
  4. Drought, disaster and rural support
  5. Future Drought Fund
  6. Regional Drought Resilience Planning

Sidebar first - Farming

  • Future Drought Fund
    • Case studies
    • Climate Services for Agriculture
    • Drought Resilience Commercialisation Initiative
    • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption program
      • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption Program webinar
        • Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs
          • Drought Resilience Innovation Grants
          • Science to Practice Forum
    • Drought Resilience Research and Adoption National Enabling Activities
    • Drought Resilience Self-Assessment Tool
    • Farm Business Resilience Program
    • Helping Regional Communities Prepare for Drought Initiative
    • Monitoring, evaluation and learning
    • Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program – Grants
    • Natural Resource Management Drought Resilience Program — Landscapes
    • Regional Drought Resilience Planning

Regional Drought Resilience Planning

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building drought resilience. It affects regional landscapes, communities and economies in different ways.

That’s why the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund is working with state and territory governments to support regions to develop drought resilience plans.

The plans:

  • are community-owned and led involving local governments, regional organisations, the agricultural sector and local Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs
  • identify actions to prepare for future droughts based on evidence
  • build on existing planning
  • draw out regional needs and priorities to inform future investment.

The Regional Drought Resilience Planning program is providing regions with:

  • independent expert feedback on plans by CSIRO that applies the science of resilience, adaptation and transformation
  • the opportunity to learn from each other
  • small grants to kickstart actions identified in their plans.

Benefits

Regional communities are benefiting from this program by:

  • building their economic, environmental and social resilience to future droughts
  • being in a stronger position to adapt to climate change
  • forming stronger connections and networks within and between regions
  • applying best practice data and information to make better decisions.

Regional Drought Resilience Planning in the Murraylands and Riverland LGA, South Australia

See how South Australia’s Murraylands and Riverland region is benefiting from drought resilience planning.

[Video begins]

Chris Sounness [00:26]:

The Future Drought Fund, Regional Drought Resilience program for the Wimmera Southern Mallee, I think is all about preparation. Resilience is about preparation, not the response.

Dr Cathy Tischler [00:36]:

A lot of the resilience work that’s been done to date has focused on the land and to an extent agriculture, which I think is really important. But we’ve gotta challenge our thinking in that space a little bit more and look at how we create resilient communities as a whole. I think we’ve actually got to do more to prepare all the people in our communities for times of climate variability.

Chris Sounness [00:59]:

The biggest challenge in our community isn’t actually the farming systems. We have 23 small towns under a thousand people, and they’re the ones that are most impacted because when the drought hits, the farmers spend tend to spend less money locally.

Dr Cathy Tischler [01:13]:

Small business owners are very independently resilient, but we also felt that small businesses experienced significant hardship through the millennial drought and other drought periods in our recent past. And we felt that they were largely expected to get on with business on their own. And a number of them spoke about other businesses that had had folded up and left the area during times of drought.

Chan Uoy [01:47]:

The next drought is around the corner. We know that. So as a business owner, I guess we’ve, you know, had to diversify. So for example, we’re not just a gift shop, we are also, you know, wine bar, we also accommodation. So we have to be flexible and versatile to adjust to the circumstances, the crisis and the environment. Also, as a community member, you need to support each other, boost morale and have community engagement, and also create activities that people can forget the hardships for a while.

Dr Cathy Tischler [02:19]:

A really important consideration for us going forward is how do we maintain the vibrancy and the diversity of business in our community when we’re experiencing periods of drought and we’ve got that localised cash flow tightening?

Chan Uoy [02:34]:

My first time coming to Dimboola from Melbourne, I really thought, where’s everyone? How do I bring customers to a sleepy town? The goal was to create something really quite bold, quite out there, quite imaginative. So I came up with a steampunk event. Dimboola was a 19th century railway town. It’s got the architecture, it’s got the intimacy of the street scape to host a street party. We had nearly 4,000 people. We had three stages, 12 bands. We had a multicultural flash mob from the Wimmera Development Association. So 55 different cultures performed the Time Walk flash mob. That was quite phenomenal according to locals who had lived in the Wimmera all their life. Ultimately the event was about creating joy for the community.

Chris Sounness [03:25]:

We want our kids to think it’s a great place to live, grow up, but also that they can see some educational opportunities and they can see some great career opportunities locally.

Chan Uoy [03:37]:

I think the Drought Resilience Plan is really important for the area because you need a backup plan. You know, when you’re too dependent on agriculture, which is what the region is all based on, you need plan B.

Chris Sounness [03:47]:

Our Plan clearly articulated how we can build that resilience in our towns. Drought, I suppose, is what brings to the surface, some of the underpinning challenges our communities face. And often we try and tackle those challenges in the middle of drought, which is actually possibly the most challenging times to tackle it. And that’s why this program I’m so excited about and the funding from the Federal government, because it’s actually doing the preparation work, tackling it when we’ve got a chance to think about it, rather than actually under the pressure of trying to respond.

[Video ends]

Delivery

The foundational year of the program saw 23 regions across Australia announced as the first to develop regional drought resilience plans. These regions are listed below including links to finalised plans, where available:

Map displaying regions of Australia that are a part of the Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program
State or Territory Regions Links to finalised plans
New South Wales Hilltops and Upper Lachlan Not yet available
Tamworth and Walcha Not yet available
Gwydir and Inverell Not yet available
Victoria Gippsland

Gippsland Drought Resilience Plan: A Framework to Guide Future Effort and Investment (PDF 6.7 MB)

Goulburn

Goulburn Drought Resilience Plan (PDF 4.0 MB)

Wimmera Southern Mallee

Wimmera Southern Mallee Drought Resilience Plan (PDF 4.3 MB)

Queensland Darling Downs Darling Downs Regional Drought Resilience Plan 2022-2030 (PDF 5 MB)
Fitzroy Capricornia Fitzroy and Capricornia Regional Drought Resilience Plan 2022-2030 (PDF 5 MB)
Cape York and Torres Strait Torres Strait and Cape York Regional Drought Resilience Plan 2022-2030 (PDF 5 MB)
Burdekin and Charters Towers Burdekin and Charters Towers Regional Drought Resilience Plan 2022-2030 (PDF 5 MB)
South West South West Queensland Regional Drought Resilience Plan 2022-2030 (PDF 6 MB)
South Australia Murraylands and Riverland Not yet available
Mid North and Yorke Not yet available
Far North and Outback Not yet available
Western Australia Wheatbelt Not yet available
Mid West Not yet available
Great Southern Not yet available
Tasmania North Not yet available
North West Not yet available
South Not yet available
Australian Capital Territory Whole of ACT Not yet available
Northern Territory Southern Alice Springs Pastoral District Not yet available
Barkly Pastoral District Not yet available

These plans may not meet accessibility requirements. Please contact droughtresilience@aff.gov.au for assistance.

Regional Drought Resilience Planning in the Wimmera, Victoria

See how Victoria’s Wimmera Southern Mallee region are building their drought resilience.

[Video begins]

Chris Sounness [00:26]:

The Future Drought Fund, Regional Drought Resilience program for the Wimmera Southern Mallee, I think is all about preparation. Resilience is about preparation, not the response.

Dr Cathy Tischler [00:36]:

A lot of the resilience work that’s been done to date has focused on the land and to an extent agriculture, which I think is really important. But we’ve gotta challenge our thinking in that space a little bit more and look at how we create resilient communities as a whole. I think we’ve actually got to do more to prepare all the people in our communities for times of climate variability.

Chris Sounness [00:59]:

The biggest challenge in our community isn’t actually the farming systems. We have 23 small towns under a thousand people, and they’re the ones that are most impacted because when the drought hits, the farmers spend tend to spend less money locally.

Dr Cathy Tischler [01:13]:

Small business owners are very independently resilient, but we also felt that small businesses experienced significant hardship through the millennial drought and other drought periods in our recent past. And we felt that they were largely expected to get on with business on their own. And a number of them spoke about other businesses that had had folded up and left the area during times of drought.

Chan Uoy [01:47]:

The next drought is around the corner. We know that. So as a business owner, I guess we’ve, you know, had to diversify. So for example, we’re not just a gift shop, we are also, you know, wine bar, we also accommodation. So we have to be flexible and versatile to adjust to the circumstances, the crisis and the environment. Also, as a community member, you need to support each other, boost morale and have community engagement, and also create activities that people can forget the hardships for a while.

Dr Cathy Tischler [02:19]:

A really important consideration for us going forward is how do we maintain the vibrancy and the diversity of business in our community when we’re experiencing periods of drought and we’ve got that localised cash flow tightening?

Chan Uoy [02:34]:

My first time coming to Dimboola from Melbourne, I really thought, where’s everyone? How do I bring customers to a sleepy town? The goal was to create something really quite bold, quite out there, quite imaginative. So I came up with a steampunk event. Dimboola was a 19th century railway town. It’s got the architecture, it’s got the intimacy of the street scape to host a street party. We had nearly 4,000 people. We had three stages, 12 bands. We had a multicultural flash mob from the Wimmera Development Association. So 55 different cultures performed the Time Walk flash mob. That was quite phenomenal according to locals who had lived in the Wimmera all their life. Ultimately the event was about creating joy for the community.

Chris Sounness [03:25]:

We want our kids to think it’s a great place to live, grow up, but also that they can see some educational opportunities and they can see some great career opportunities locally.

Chan Uoy [03:37]:

I think the Drought Resilience Plan is really important for the area because you need a backup plan. You know, when you’re too dependent on agriculture, which is what the region is all based on, you need plan B.

Chris Sounness [03:47]:

Our Plan clearly articulated how we can build that resilience in our towns. Drought, I suppose, is what brings to the surface, some of the underpinning challenges our communities face. And often we try and tackle those challenges in the middle of drought, which is actually possibly the most challenging times to tackle it. And that’s why this program I’m so excited about and the funding from the Federal government, because it’s actually doing the preparation work, tackling it when we’ve got a chance to think about it, rather than actually under the pressure of trying to respond.

[Video ends]

See more about each state

New South Wales

See more about NSW

Queensland

See more about QLD

Victoria

See more about VIC

Northern Territory

See more about NT

South Australia

See more about SA

Australian Capital Territory

See more about ACT

Tasmania

See more about Tasmania

Western Australia

See more about WA

Funding information

Find the details of the payment information for the Regional Drought Resilience Planning program as required under Section 27A of the Future Drought Fund Act 2019 below.

Downloads

Future Drought Fund: Regional Drought Resilience Planning program (PDF 218 KB)
Future Drought Fund: Regional Drought Resilience Planning program (DOCX 674 KB)

If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.

Factsheet

Downloads

Future Drought Fund: Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program PDF 281 KB
Future Drought Fund: Regional Drought Resilience Planning Program DOCX 844 KB

If you have difficulty accessing these files, visit web accessibility for assistance.

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Last updated: 28 September 2023

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