Disaster assistance has been made available to help communities in the Great Southern region recover from the damage caused by heavy rainfall and severe flooding last month.
As a result of storms in early August that dumped two months of rain in two days, the City of Albany and the Shire of Denmark experienced significant damage to their respective road networks.
Minister for Emergency Management David Littleproud and the Western Australian Minister for Emergency Services Francis Logan announced today that assistance would be provided through the jointly funded Commonwealth-State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.
"The severe weather system in early August was a rare weather event that lingered over the South Coast, flooding local roads and causing significant infrastructure damage," Minister Littleproud said.
"This assistance will help the community back on its feet as quickly as possible.
"The Australian Government will continue to work closely with the Western Australian Government to ensure that the affected communities have all the support they need during this difficult time."
Mr Logan said the severe weather event broke a number of rainfall records across the Great Southern, underlining the strain on the region's infrastructure.
"Bremer Bay broke its 90-year daily rainfall record, while King River received its highest ever daily rainfall since records began," he said.
"Early reports indicate at least 50 roads in the local area sustained varying degrees of damage, meaning the total repair bill could easily total hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions.
"This crucial financial assistance will help get the communities of Albany and Denmark back to business sooner, with the clean-up and repair costs covered by the State and Federal Governments.
"We will work with our counterparts in Canberra to continue to monitor the impacts of these storms and are ready to extend disaster assistance to other communities in need."
Information on disaster assistance is available on the Australian Government's Disaster Assist website at disasterassist.gov.au
