He informed me that West Wimmera Shire had been successful under the Drought Communities Program, and council was to receive $1.5 million towards eligible infrastructure projects. Good News indeed!!

It's fantastic that the federal government listened to our lobbying and have responded to our need.

Over the past few years council has instigated a series of community consultations, held at numerous locations right across the shire. All participants followed a process whereby each community nominated its top priority projects.

At that time it really was a “wishlist” with no guarantees that there would ever be the opportunity to fund or see the projects get off the ground. Nevertheless, it was a very worthwhile exercise.

These nominated projects helped inform council’s decision as to how the $1.5m should be allocated.

Consideration was also given to the question of  “how can we get maximum value out of this money?”.

It will be essential to use local labour wherever possible, to ensure that the benefits of this financial support filter through our community.

Obviously the main impacts of drought are experienced by farmers, but it's well known that the effects are felt right across the community, from agricultural suppliers to coffee shops. The $1.5m cash injection will provide a much needed boost to our local economy.

Some parts of WWS have received some very welcome rainfall over recent weeks, other parts have been less fortunate. For many, the effects of the drought will take time to recover from.

Areas with little or no run-off and no access to underground water have been particularly disadvantaged.

A couple of months ago the state government agreed to fund a feasibility study into extending the Wimmera Mallee Pipeline into WWS. Council is now gearing up to begin discussions with GWM Water to develop a brief for that study.

Our shire has had some wins recently, it's fantastic that both state and federal governments have listened and provided much needed financial support.