The Narooma Oyster Festival has secured $80,000 from the Regional Tourism Bushfire Recovery Grants program created for eligible applicants operating in Local Government Areas activated by state or territory governments for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) assistance for the 2019-2020 fire season.
In learning of the announcement Kristy McBain, Eden Monaro Labor candidate, said she was delighted with the news as the application for Federal funds had been strongly supported by Mike Kelly, the vacating member for the electorate.
"Mike has been a strong supporter of the Narooma Oyster Festival since its inception and he will enjoy learning of this announcement. Though the festival wasn't able to be held this year due to Covid this funding will give the festival organisers a boost for next year's event" Ms McBain said.
Above: A gorgeous day in Narooma for the Oyster Festival in 2018 saw Member for Eden Monaro Mike Kelly as part of the judging team for the World's Biggest Oyster-Guinness Book of Records Attempt.
On 11 February 2020, the Australian Government announced the Regional Tourism Bushfire Recovery Grants program, a $10 million grants program which has been drawn from the Bushfire Recovery Fund.
The program is part of the Government’s $76 million tourism recovery package to protect jobs, small businesses and local economies by helping get tourists travelling into bushfire affected regions.
Austrade will administer the program, which has been developed in consultation with the National Bushfire Recovery Agency.
The program has two funding streams which, together, will support events, concerts, festivals and visitor attractions in fire affected regions to assist with recovery efforts and encourage international and domestic visitors to come back to the regions.
Applications for the program opened 17 February 2020.
Eligible applicants were Local Government Authorities and Regional Tourism Organisations operating in Local Government Areas activated by state or territory governments for Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA) assistance for the 2019-2020 fire season.
Stream 2 of the grants were focused at supporting larger events (including the promotion of those events), concerts, festivals and/or other visitor attractions such as art installations and tourist walks.
Applicants were advised to make their proposals scalable as they may not receive the full funding amount they are seeking and also strongly encouraged to partner with other eligible organisations within their region to lodge joint applications and also encouraged to partner with community and industry groups where relevant.
