{"id":108353,"date":"2025-08-25T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/?p=108353"},"modified":"2025-08-20T19:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T09:53:47","slug":"applications-open-for-drought-employment-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/news\/applications-open-for-drought-employment-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Applications open for Drought Employment Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has opened applications for its Drought Employment Program.<\/p>\n

Farmers, farm workers and agricultural business employees impacted by ongoing drought conditions can apply, providing meaningful off-farm employment opportunities.<\/p>\n

Those impacted will have the opportunity to take on an off-farm role for 12 months with their CMA to give drought affected workers employment and their regular employers a break from paying wages.<\/p>\n

Funded by the Victorian government, the program is being delivered in the Corangamite and Glenelg Hopkins CMA regions.<\/p>\n

Corangamite CMA chief executive officer Amber Clarke said the initiative played an important role in supporting farmers and communities doing it tough.<\/p>\n

“Like previous successful CMA Drought Employment Programs, this program provides a way for people to earn an income, apply their skills and build confidence in future employment opportunities by undertaking a range of different health works – like riparian fencing, pest and weed control and revegetation.”<\/p>\n

Employees will still be based locally throughout the initiative, with a range of part-time or full-time roles available, depending on the applicant’s needs.<\/p>\n

The program will be available for farmers or farm-dependent workers from 11 local government areas in south-west Victoria including the Surf Coast, Greater Geelong and Golden Plains municipalities.<\/p>\n

Minister for Water Gayle Tierney announced the program as part of a $144 million package through the Premier’s Drought Response Taskforce.<\/p>\n

“The Drought Employment Program will support workers with off-farm income while conditions are difficult, while bringing forward essential local environmental and waterway improvement works.”<\/p>\n

A total of $1 million is available for the CMA-led project in the south-west, where drought conditions have been the most severe over a long period of time.<\/p>\n

For more information or to submit an expression of interest, head to ccma.vic.gov.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has opened applications for its Drought Employment Program. Farmers, farm workers and agricultural business employees impacted by ongoing drought conditions can apply, providing meaningful off-farm employment opportunities. Those impacted will have the opportunity to take on an off-farm role for 12 months with their CMA to give drought affected workers […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":220,"featured_media":108354,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-108353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nApplications open for Drought Employment Program - Bellarine Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Applications open for the Drought Employment Program, offering 12-month off-farm jobs to drought-affected workers in south-west Victoria.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bellarinetimes\/news\/applications-open-for-drought-employment-program\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Applications open for Drought Employment Program - 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