Regional Drought Plan Development

The Future Drought Fund (FDF) is a fund initiated by the Australian Government to provide secure, continuous funding for drought resilience initiatives. Eight programs were initiated under the FDF on 1 July 2020 designed to build resilience for future droughts. One of these programs is Regional Drought Resilience Planning (RDRP). The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) is the lead agency responsible for administering Queensland’s RDRP. DAF initiated the project on 1 July 2021 with the Rural Economies Centre of Excellence (RECoE) as the delivery partner. RECoE is the Project Sponsor and delivery lead for this project and is an alliance of four Queensland universities lead by University of Southern Queensland in collaboration with The University of Queensland, James Cook University, and Central Queensland University. 

Southern Gulf NRM will work closely with members of the UQ node project team to undertake the following activities that will support the delivery of the RDRP in North West Queensland:

• Write a chapter on climate for inclusion in the NWQ Plan.
• Contribute weather data analysis and knowledge of the region including water supply, climate, drought history, rainfall trends, temperature trends, landscape and natural environment, future drought risks, and land condition assessments.
• Facilitate targeted RDRP engagement sessions with landholders and/or other identified stakeholders such as landholders and producers that can participate in backgrounding the project, First Nations groups who are able to provide guidance on Caring for Country, and large pastoral companies. 
• Support RDRP engagement and project activities through Southern Gulf NRM Ltd. network and communication channels to landholders and other stakeholders where suitable.