Small Business Recovery Assistance Grant Program – 2025 Queensland Monsoon Trough

This grant provides financial support to small and family businesses in defined disaster areas significantly disrupted by the Queensland Monsoon Trough, Cyclone Koji, Cyclone Narelle and severe weather (24 December 2025 – 24 April 2026) 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).

Available funding

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

How funding may be used

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 (EDARG)
• marketing expenses aimed at regaining lost customers and re-establishing the business post-disaster.

We 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.

We 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 been affected by the 2025 Queensland Monsoon Trough, Cyclone Koji, Cyclone Narelle and severe weather disaster event
• be located within one of the following local government areas
  • Carpentaria Shire Council
  • Cook Shire Council
  • Douglas Shire Council
  • Isaac Regional Council
  • Weipa Town Authority
• have less than 20 employees (by headcount) at both the time of the disaster and the time of application
  • headcount refers to the number of individuals (full-time, part-time and casual) employed and receiving a salary or wage from your business. However, business owners, non-executive directors and contractors are not including in the headcount
• have an annual turnover of $10 million or less
  • turnover means aggregated turnover as defined in the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997
• have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and be registered for GST at both the time of the disaster and the time of application
• 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 70% compared to the same 14-day period in the preceding year
• have been actively trading immediately prior to being affected by the disaster event
  • if your business has been actively trading for less than 12 months you will need to provide a Business Activity Statement (BAS) for the financial year (FY) periods defined in the application process below
• not be insolvent or have owners/directors that are currently bankrupt or undischarged from bankruptcy
• not be a subsidiary of a group of companies that has more than 19 employees in total.

Organisations included on the National Redress Scheme's website on the list of 'institutions that have not joined or have not signified their intent to join the Scheme' are not eligible to apply.

Check your eligibility

Use the eligibility checker before you apply. You can also review the application guidelines for further information.

Application process

You must submit your application through the SmartyGrants portal.

Only the business owner can submit the application. We will not accept applications or responses submitted by third parties. Only submit realistic and probable answers and evidence in your application, noting that you may be required to provide this at any time at our discretion.

To apply, you must provide all necessary supporting information and evidence:

• completed 100-point identification check form or certified copies of identification documents totalling 100 points, witnessed by an authorised person (e.g. Justice of the Peace, Commissioner for Declarations or solicitor)
• bank statements supporting non-trading (closure) period or reduction in revenue
  • if applying based on a non-trading (closure) period, statements must cover the disaster period to verify the absence of trading activity – if income transactions appear on bank statements as received during the disaster-affected period, you must provide supporting evidence, such as invoices or contracts, demonstrating that the payments are for goods or services provided before the disaster-affected period
  • if applying based on a reduction in revenue, you must provide bank statements for both the disaster period and the corresponding period in the previous year. Statements must clearly show deposits and transactions to substantiate the claimed income loss
  • bank statements must be provided in full and must not be redacted (no blacked-out sections)
  • if your business has been actively trading for less than 12 months—and you are unable to provide a bank statement for the same 14-day period in the previous year—you must instead provide a BAS for Q4 for the 2024-25 FY and Q1 for the 2025–26 FY that shows a 70% reduction in revenue as a result of the disaster. Note: If your business has been trading for less than 12 months and has not submitted a BAS for Q4 2024–25 FY and Q1 2025–26 FY, you will not be eligible for this grant.
• evidence of disaster impact, such as
  • 5 to 10 photographs or other substantiating documentation
  • supporting materials such as social media posts, booking cancellations, or customer communications regarding business closure or trading impacts to demonstrate the extent of the impact
• bank statements and additional supporting documentation of eligible expenses incurred since the disaster, up to the amount applied for. Additional supporting documentation may include
  • insurance claim documents
  • payslips for employees or payroll summaries
  • receipts for repairs and other disaster recovery assistance funding
  • tax invoices for eligible recovery expenses.

Apply now

Assessment of applications

Lodging an application does not guarantee that funding will be approved.

Applications will be assessed, and decisions will be made as soon as practicable, usually within 2–3 weeks of submission. Your application may be deemed ineligible if you haven’t provided enough information and supporting documentation. We may request further information to help assess an application.

Applications are assessed for compliance against the eligibility criteria within these guidelines and their competitiveness with the program guidelines and assessment criteria; applicants must demonstrate the extent to which the grant-funded activity:

• meets a genuine financial need
• aligns with the program's objectives, such as re-establishing business operations, maintaining employment, and covering extraordinary costs related to recovery
• contributes to community stability and recovery
• demonstrates value for money.

Successful applicants

Funding agreement and payment

If successful, you must enter into a funding agreement with us to receive funding of up to $15,000 (excluding GST). Funding is paid when you accept the funding agreement.

The funding agreement consists of:

• the letter of agreement
• any other terms agreed in writing between the parties
• the terms and conditions
• the application guidelines
• the submitted application.

Surveys

You must complete an outcomes survey within 3 months of receiving funds. You will receive an email when the survey is available in SmartyGrants.

More information

For more information about the program, read the key documents and information:

• application guidelines
• sample application form.

View our small business grants schedule to learn what other support you may be eligible for.

Subscribe to the Business Queensland Connect newsletter for the latest information for Queensland small businesses.

Contact us

For further information about the program email disastergrants@desbt.qld.gov.au or phone 13 QGOV (13 74 68).

Check your eligibility

To be eligible for this grant, your business must meet the eligibility criteria and other conditions of the program.