The Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) is a joint Queensland and Australian Government program that provides a number of relief measures to deliver financial assistance to Queensland communities following natural disaster events.

The Restoration of Essential Public Assets (REPA) relief measure, under the NDRRA funding program helps councils restore essential local infrastructure in the wake of a natural disaster.

The NDRRA's REPA relief measure’s primary aim is to return public assets to their pre-disaster standard as quickly as possible, so that people in affected areas can get on with rebuilding their lives. Funding under NDRRA is provided jointly by the Queensland and Commonwealth Governments.

Queensland Reconstruction Authority

After a summer that left much of the state impacted by either flood or cyclone damage, Queenslanders have been left with the enormous task of reconstruction. To coordinate this effort, Premier Anna Bligh established the Queensland Reconstruction Authority on 21 February 2011.

Applying for Restoration of Essential Public Assets (REPA) funding under the NDRRA

Department of Local Government and Planning – REPA information for councils, for all disaster events prior to November 2010:

• Contact the department's regional office that operates in the area of your Council.
• Application form 1 – submission checklist ( 509 KB)
• Application form 2 – specific sites submission ( 41 KB)
• Application form 3 – unit rates for multi sites, one road submission ( 31 KB)
• Application form 4 – multi sites, one road submission ( 30 KB)
• Application form 5 – summary sheet ( 62 KB)
• funding acknowledgement requirements
• NDRRA State Disaster Management Group publications

Visit the Queensland Reconstruction Authority’s website for all disaster events from November 2010 to April 2011.

NDRRA Day Labour Claims

Where councils use regular council workers to undertake emergent or restorative works, the wages for this work are not eligible under the NDDRA guidelines. This includes normal salaries and wages for council staff on the permanent payroll.

Section 4.4.9 of the NDRRA Guidelines states that normal maintenance and administration costs are ineligible expenditure costs. These ineligible costs are items such as salaries, day labour costs and other ongoing administrative type expenditure which would have been incurred even if the disaster had not occurred.

Only extraordinary costs beyond these standard salaries or wages are eligible and can continue to be claimed under NDRRA. This includes costs such as overtime and allowances of council staff, backfilling staff deployed to response operations, and engagement of consultants, contractors, or commercial entities.

Further information

For further information about Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements in Queensland:

• visit the State Disaster Management Group's website
• visit the Queensland Reconstruction Authority website
• contact the department's regional office that operates in the area of your council.