General News
11 December, 2024
Historic fund to help Mount Isa's recent flood victims
Sunset businesses and residents will benefit from the fund established in 1974.
A 50-year-old community disaster assistance fund will be used to pay for increased mitigation efforts along Breakaway Creek in Mount Isa after Sunset homes and businesses were inundated by floodwater last month.
The Mount Isa North West Community Flood Relief Fund is estimated to currently have about $1 million in its coffers and is administered out of the financial office at Mount Isa City Council.
Following discussions between Mount Isa mayor Peta MacRae, Traeger MP Robbie Katter and Kennedy MP Bob Katter – who are all designated trustees of the fund – the trio have decided to draw from the fund for “mitigation activities” along Breakaway Creek – although specific details of the plans, including how much money will be spent, are yet to be decided.
The decision comes after the three political leaders met with frustrated residents and business owners at Sunset Tourist Park last week, who said they had been warning for years that overgrowth of vegetation and lack of management along the creek was a risk to their properties.
The relief fund was originally created following the record “big wet” flooding along the Leichhardt River in January 1974, which also saw significant rainfall and mass evacuations across the North West.
A public meeting was held in the city shortly after the water had subsided to discuss options to forge a recovery pathway.
At a time when there were fewer available state and federal disaster relief packages available, it was agreed at the meeting that ratepayers, community groups, local businesses and Mount Isa Mines would jointly make contributions towards developing a hyper-local fund that could be drawn from in times of need.
The money sits in various high-interest accounts and, under the original terms of the fund, can only be distributed for flood recovery efforts with the unanimous support of the Mount Isa mayor, state MP and federal MP.
The fund is a registered charity that undergoes the same financial auditing as any other not-for-profit.
The fund has been drawn upon intermittently in the past five decades – most recently to support Burketown’s flood recovery efforts in 2023 – although there have been decade-long stretches where the money has not been touched.
Cr MacRae said drawing on the local relief fund to assist Sunset homeowners and businesses was in line with its original intent to provide rapid disaster assistance.
“We have the funds specifically in an account for emergencies, and I would see this as an emergency because there was an unprecedented amount of water that did fall in a very inconvenient location – we understand people were impacted and we feel it is important to assist,” she said.
“My core focus is on mitigation – we don’t want to be standing in the same position in two months – we want people to spend the money the right way, so this does not continue to happen.”
Robbie Katter said it was a “pretty easy” decision to roll out the money to assist the Sunset area.
“This is in the spirit of the establishment of these funds – we now just have to ensure there will be enough money to continue to also help others into the future.”