The principal aim of the Pastoral Water Grants Scheme (PWGS) is to encourage commercial pastoralists to develop alternative watering points to ease grazing intensity around existing overgrazed and degraded water supplies, thereby encouraging sustainable grazing management.
The PWGS is also designed to secure pastoral properties against water shortages in most years and to enhance homestead water supplies.
There are 465 pastoral leases in the Kimberley, Pilbara, and Gascoyne/Murchison and Goldfields regions that may be eligible to apply for assistance under the scheme. Department of Agriculture and Food (WA) regional technical officers support the scheme and are available to assist pastoralists plan water supply improvements on their leases.
Under the Pastoral Water Grants Scheme:
- the maximum grant available per pastoral business is $20 000
- pastoralists can claim 50% of expenditure on approved water supply improvement work up to the maximum available grant
- improvement works must be undertaken and claimed within two years of the grant being approved
- grants are not awarded retrospectively. Works undertaken prior to grant approval will not be eligible for a grant.
Further information can be accessed by clicking on the publication (right).