Reef Assist – Traditional Owner Grant Program (Australia)

Deadline: 30 June 2025

Grant applications are now invited for the Reef Assist – Traditional Owner Grant Program.

The Reef Assist Traditional Owner Grant Program is a competitive grants program which provides grant funding to eligible Traditional Owners to lead and collaborate on activities that reflect their aspirations and cultural obligations to connect, care for, heal and maintain the condition of the GBR catchment areas.

Objectives

The aim of the Reef Assist Traditional Owner Grant Program is to achieve benefits for both the GBR and for Traditional Owners. Achieving this aim may look different for every applicant, based on their own priorities and aspirations to care for their Country under the below objectives. Projects/initiatives should align with one or more of the objectives shown below – examples of activities have been provided for each of the objectives but the list is not exhaustive.
Objective 1: Increased training, learning and development opportunities for Traditional Owners
- This might look like:
  - Providing support for activities that lead to improved leadership skills and competency levels for Traditional Owners,
  - Activities that build capacity or training programs and key educational pieces that focus on increasing skills and capabilities of your community to either start a project or be used to support future projects,
  - Activities that build an understanding of the requirements, risk and potential costs, income and other benefits generated through entering nature-based economic opportunities, Supporting and encouraging connection and collaboration with other Traditional Owner groups, peer-to-peer and hands-on learning, sharing and Traditional Owner leadership, and/or
  - Engaging with researchers to build relationships and partnerships for training and education to engage in land and catchment management e.g. water quality monitoring, environmental surveys and assessments, wetland/riparian/land restoration.
Objective 2: Build business and project readiness of Traditional Owner groups.
- This might look like:
  - Developing and documenting governance arrangements that can facilitate projects or
  - business decision making through cultural authority processes,
  - Training and/or upskilling of staff or recruiting staff that can support overall project management, co-ordination, administration and reporting for future projects,
  - Traditional Owner groups developing or updating (land and sea) country-based plans,
  - Traditional Owner groups implementing their (land and sea) country-based plans,
  - on-Country visits to map or collect important information (e.g. photos or GIS information),
  - Business planning and recording how they wish to care for their Country or waterways, and/or
  - Training and/or expert support to develop data sharing and benefit sharing agreements to ensure data sovereignty and protect Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP).
Objective 3: Traditional Owner led Land, Catchment and Coastal restoration
- This might look like:
  - Building skills through hands-on experience and training opportunities with partners in land restoration or monitoring the health of Country,
  - Participating in or co-leading with partners on land and catchment restoration activities such as habitat restoration, erosion control, gully remediation, mangrove replanting or wetland/waterway revegetation and rehabilitation, weed and feral animal management, and/or
  - Maintenance and enhancements to sites previously rehabilitated through Reef Assist or similar programs
Objective 4: Traditional Owner monitoring and reporting to improve current capacity.
- This might look like:
  - Acquiring, improving, developing and updating cultural heritage databases which assist Traditional Owners in looking after Country,
  - Mapping and monitoring of Country and its cultural values and uses,
  - Implementing the Strong Peoples Strong Country framework, or developing monitoring frameworks (including biocultural indicators) that can be implemented on Country,
  - Producing relevant communication materials about helping Country and why it’s important to your group, your Country and the GBR,
  - Project activities that involve the identification, conservation, protection, management and promotion of culture and heritage as they relate to looking after the health of the GBR,
  - On country water quality monitoring of freshwater waterways,
  - Engaging with GBR partners to share Indigenous knowledge and data into broader GBR
  - monitoring and reporting processes, and to draw on broader GBR partner datasets, to inform management.

Funding Information

Project funding of up to $200,000 (GST exclusive) is available.
All projects must be completed by 30 October 2026.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, applicants must meet all the following eight criteria:
- Applicants who apply for this must be a Traditional Owner legal entity (one that is at least 50 per cent or more owned by GBR Traditional Owner/s), or Traditional Owner groups without legal entities at the closing date for applications must be represented or auspiced by a legal entity who may apply on their behalf (this includes but is not restricted to a peak body or regional natural resource management organisation). The legal entity will be legally responsible for meeting contractual obligations. Traditional Owner groups can nominate what type of entity they would like to use to engage with the project for instance:
- an incorporated association
- a body corporate company
- a cooperative society
- an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander corporation or incorporated association, or
- a trust duly constituted.
Be a Traditional Owner group for the area where the work/project is proposed (or have culturally appropriate permissions where the project may cover multiple estates)
Have legal access to the area(s) where the project will take place (note written consent from landholders where relevant is required to be submitted as part of the grant application).
Accept the terms and conditions of the application and the specified terms in the grant agreement templates.
Confirm that all actual, perceived and/or potential conflicts of interest are declared, and a management plan is proposed.
Hold or be willing to hold the required insurances: Workers Compensation; Public Liability (minimum required: $20,000,000 per occurrence); Professional Indemnity Insurance (minimum required: $1,000,000) and Asset Insurance (if applicable).
Have developed and implemented comprehensive Work Health Safety (WHS) policies and procedures for the project, or is willing to undergo a WHS risk assessment, take all reasonable steps to manage identified risks, and undergo specific training or qualifications that the department recommends prior to commencing the project. 8. Have a project that is ready to commence by 1 September 2025.
Have a project that is ready to commence by 1 September 2025.