$500,000 is on offer for Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations working on conserving and restoring land and sea.
The Queensland Government ‘Looking After Country’ grants can be used for a variety of activities including restoring Country though relegation or Cultural burns and reconnecting with Culture through on-Country camps that provide knowledge transfer and site restoration.
When announcing the program, Environment Minister Meaghan Scanlan said First Nations communities have played a central role in preserving environment, culture and heritage for tens of thousands of years.
“And we want to support them as they continue to Look After Country,” she said.
“Projects funded by these grants also create jobs and provide another avenue for First Nations’ people to work on Country, with the previous of funding helping to create close to 80 jobs,” Minister Scanlan said.
The Looking after Country Grant Program provides funding of up to $75,000 to First Nations communities to conserve and manage environmental and cultural heritage on Country. The program aims to build community capacity to deliver these projects, and to develop strong partnerships in caring for Country.
“This is funding that will go directly to First Nations-led projects on-country that look after the environment, create jobs and lay new pathways to gain meaningful skills and training,” the Minister said.
Project activities funded through the program include (but are not limited to):
- Cultural site management
- protected species monitoring and conservation
- revegetation and habitat restoration
- fire management
- erosion control
- inter-generational knowledge exchange on Country
- the development and implementation of Country management plans.
View the guidelines here.
Check out past grant recipients here.
Grants are available only to Indigenous Corporations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Councils, and other non-profit organisations with majority First Nations boards.
Applications close 25 August, 2022.
Want to know about other grants that are open right now? Check out our grants listing. It’s free and updated weekly.