Drought Relief Assistance Scheme

The Drought Relief Assistance Scheme (DRAS) helps primary producers with drought-declared properties to:

  • manage the welfare of their core breeding herd during drought
  • restore their herds after drought.

Changes from 1 April 2022

DRAS is only available to primary producers that were drought-declared before 1 April 2022.

You can choose to either:

Once you access the new measures, you cannot go back to DRAS.

If you are accessing DRAS you can still:

After 1 April 2022, any new areas or individual properties which are drought declared will not be able to access DRAS. DRAS will be phased out as local government areas come out of drought.

During a drought

Assistance is available through DRAS if your property:

You may be eligible for the:

After a drought

Assistance is available through DRAS if your property:

You can apply for freight subsidies for transporting livestock:

These subsidies are available for 2 years after a current drought declaration is revoked.

Maximum amounts available

The maximum amount available under the DRAS is initially a total of $20,000 per property, per financial year.

All properties or land parcels included under a single property identification code (PIC) are considered to be 1 property. DRAS does not allow the splitting of partnerships, properties or land parcels to access more than the prescribed maximum amount.

If you reach the limit

If you reach the $20,000 limit for your property, you can apply to extend the limit up to $50,000 depending on the length of time your property has been in drought.

You will need to prepare a Drought Management Plan (DMP) for your property and have it endorsed by a DAF officer. Once your DMP is endorsed, the applicable ceiling applies to the entire current financial year and later financial years.

After the drought declaration is revoked

Once a drought declaration is revoked, the DRAS ceiling is the level the property was on immediately before the revocation. It remains at that level for the period that the property is eligible to apply for DRAS.

For example, if a property with an approved DMP was in the third year of being drought declared, the DRAS ceiling would be $40,000 once the declaration was revoked.

More information

  • Last reviewed: 21 Sep 2022
  • Last updated: 21 Sep 2022