Funding is available under the Environmental Protection Agency’s NatureAssist scheme. NatureAssist is for rural Queensland landholders to help sustainably manage their land, conditional upon them entering into a nature refuge agreement. 

NatureAssist is a competitive market-based incentive scheme that gives landholders throughout rural Queensland the opportunity to tender for financial assistance to carry out on-ground management actions that will maintain or enhance their property’s conservation values.

Landholders can express their interest by completing a simple one-page expression of interest form. This form is available on the EPA website www.epa.qld.gov.au/naturerefuges or by calling the EPA Customer Service Centre on 1300 130 372.

Landholders may tender for any tangible, on-ground activity that contributes to the protection and management of the conservation values of the proposed nature refuge.  Examples of some types of activities previously funded through NatureAssist include:

• implementing measures such as fencing to control stock access to creeks, wetlands, springs or environmentally sensitive areas;
• establishing alternative off-stream watering points for stock; 
• fencing to protect environmentally sensitive areas from pest animals or unauthorised access; 
• identifying, protecting and managing cultural heritage resources; 
• revegetation and/or regeneration techniques to enhance values, stabilise soils and improve water quality; 
• one-off flora and fauna surveys for the purposes of guiding conservation management activities; 
• control of weeds and pest animals; or 
• development and implementation of plans for on ground land management, including for sustainable farm management, fire management, conservation management or broader property management.