General News
16 May, 2025
Funds for disaster recovery
Pyrenees Shire Council will receive $365,000 towards repairing flood damaged infrastructure under the government’s Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement (DRFA).
The Victorian and federal governments are continuing to support communities affected by the 2022 flood and storm events with further disaster recovery funding.
The Pyrenees Shire is one of four local government areas receiving further funding, on top of funding the shire received in 2023.
This will allow continued upgrades to disaster damaged roads, bridges, footpaths, and drains and to protect them from future serious weather events.
Pyrenees Shire Council CEO Jim Nolan welcomed the funding, while the shire still faces infrastructure repairs two and a half years after the floods.
“The funding is extremely important for the shire and is a very welcome announcement. It will go a long way to improving the infrastructure for the safety of the community, and improve important road linkage for transport,” he said.
“The 2022 flood event caused widespread damage to council managed bridges, roads, culverts and floodways. Council has been repairing the infrastructure with the DRFA funding received so far.”
Mr Nolan said a majority of the funding will be used to repair remaining damaged roads and culverts throughout the shire.
“Apart from the early works undertaken so far, there are still 19 packages of work to complete in Glenpatrick, Amphitheatre, Elmhurst, Redbank, Lexton, Glembrae, Homebush and Avoca,” he said.
“Previous funding received by council for the same flood event was used on an improved treatment to reconstruct a damaged section of the Moonambool-Natte Yallock Road.
“Most of the betterment funding that was announced is to be spent on improving three major culverts at Ackers Lane, Holding Lane and Elmhurst-Glenpatrick Road.”
A thorough damage assessment on roads and floodways was completed to determine which areas still required repairs.
These works are expected to be completed by June 2026.
Further information on works to be undertaken will be available on the Pyrenees Shire’s website.
Other councils awarded this funding include Great Shepparton City Council, Benalla Rural City Council and Towong Shire Council.
The DRFA Efficiencies Betterment Program assessed the damage bill of each eligible council and made allocations to ensure the funding received was fair across the state.
In Victoria, DRFA assistance measures for councils are funded from the Victorian Natural Disaster Relief Trust administered by Emergency Recovery Victoria within the Department of Justice and Community Safety.