Building our Regions funding was available to regional local governments, including the non-urban local governments of South East Queensland - Lockyer Valley, Scenic Rim and Somerset regional councils.
Eligible applicants have been allocated to one of the three funds and are only eligible to apply under that fund. The three funds managed by the department are:
- Regional Capital Fund
- Royalties for Resource Producing Communities Fund
- Remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities Fund.
Funding limits and co-contributions
Eligible applicants need to ensure that funding being sought for projects falls within the following funding limits and that co-contributions under each fund are met.
| Fund | Funding limit | Co-contributions |
|---|---|---|
| Regional Capital Fund | $250,000 to $5 million | Matching financial contributions (50/50) from other sources |
| Royalties for Resource Producing Communities Fund | $250,000 to $5 million | Matching financial contributions (50/50) from other sources |
| Remote and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities Fund | $50,000 to $1 million | Not mandatory; viewed favourably during assessment |
Construction timeframes
Funding may be withdrawn from projects that have not commenced construction within the timeframe for the round they received funding under.
| Round | Commence by |
|---|---|
| 1 | 30 September 2016 |
| 2 | 30 June 2017 |
| Supplementary | 28 February 2018 |
| 3 | 30 April 2018 |
| 4 | 31 July 2019 |
Building our Regions–funded projects do not have a mandated completion date. If a project is successful, a completion date will be negotiated between the department and the local government and included in the funding agreement.
Funds
Local government eligibility has been predominantly determined on geographical grounds using the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) Remoteness Structure, which divides each state and territory into several regional categories, providing a measure of remoteness for each local government area.
View the current fund areas (
2.3 MB) for the Building our Regions program.
Assessment of applications
All applications are assessed by the department with input from other relevant Queensland Government agencies. Assessments are made against published criteria outlined in the program guidelines.
An advisory committee of senior representatives from agencies reviews the assessment outcomes and makes recommendations to the Minister for State Development, Manufacturing, Infrastructure and Planning for approval.