Following more than three years of damaging drought conditions in the East Gippsland region, the State Government funded the Gippsland Drought Employment program to provide flexible, temporary employment for farmers and individuals from related industries, to provide cashflow during the drought and to support community centred natural resource management (NRM) works.

The main objective of the program was to provide employment for drought impacted community members in need. The program eligibility was extended to include bushfire impacted individuals following catastrophic bushfires in East Gippsland in 2019/20.

The program employed 50+ field workers across five regional works crews to complete a range of natural-resources management on-ground works, including weed control, revegetation, fuel hazard reduction, fencing installation and repairs, on public reserves and along waterways.

• 70 people employed;
• 934 ha regenerated through weed control
• 20,180 native seedlings planted
• 78 ha revegetated
• 2,260 ha of fuel reduction
• 139 km environmental fencing installed / removed / maintained.