Small Business Recovery Assistance Grant Program 2025 (Australia)

Deadline: 14 May 2026

Applications are now open to support small and family businesses in defined disaster areas significantly disrupted by the North and Far North Tropical Low weather event to re-establish operations and maintain employment.

The program is administered by the Department of Customer Services, Open Data and Small and Family Business (CDSB). It is jointly supported by the Australian and Queensland governments under the Commonwealth State Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements (DRFA).

Funding Information

You may be eligible to receive a single up-front grant payment of up to $15,000 (excluding GST).

Eligible Costs

Grants are provided for extraordinary costs related to re-establishing business operations and sustaining employment. Costs must be directly related to damage or impacts caused by the event.
This includes:
- paying salaries or wages to employees
- covering rent or rates associated with the business premises
- replacement of stock that was lost, spoiled, or rendered unusable due to the disaster and is not eligible for funding under the Exceptional Disaster Assistance Recovery Grant
- professional services related to disaster recovery
- marketing expenses aimed at regaining lost customers and re-establishing the business post-disaster.

Ineligible Costs

They will not reimburse expenses already supported through other disaster grants or loans, such as the Disaster Assistance Loan or the Disaster Assistance (Essential Working Capital) Loan, or damages or losses funded through insurance claims.
They will not fund goods, services, or fees from related parties. Related parties include companies with common shareholdings or directors, mutual employees, or immediate family members.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for this grant, your business must:
- have less than 20 employees (by headcount) at both the time of the disaster and the time of application. Employee headcount refers to the number of individuals employed by the business, including full-time, part-time, and casual employees. Each person is counted as one, regardless of the number of hours worked
- have an annual turnover of less than $10 million
- have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and have held that ABN at both the time of disaster and the time of application
- be registered for GST at both the time of the disaster and the time of application
- be located within one of the following local government areas:
  - Burdekin Shire Council
  - Cairns Regional Council
  - Cassowary Coast Regional Council
  - Charters Towers Regional Council
  - Hinchinbrook Shire Council
  - Palm Island Aboriginal Shire Council
  - Townsville City Council
  - Yarrabah Aboriginal Shire Council
- have been actively trading immediately prior to being affected by the disaster event
- demonstrate an intent to continue or continued in business after the disaster event
- not be insolvent or have owners/directors that are undischarged bankrupt
- demonstrate that, for a consecutive period of at least 14 days due to the impact of the specified disaster event, your business either:
  - was completely unable to conduct trading activities or
  - experienced a decrease in revenue of at least 60% compared to the same 14-day period in 2024 (or the same 14-day period in 2023, if your 2024 revenue was impacted by Tropical Cyclone Jasper).