What is the Regional Drought Resilience Planning program?

The Victorian Regional Drought Resilience Planning (RDRP) program began in 2020 with a pilot program, and over the last 5 years has delivered 9 Regional Drought Resilience Plans and $3.42 million in regional Implementation Grants.

Co-funded by the Victoria Government and the Australian Government’s Future Drought Fund (FDF), the RDRP program has delivered across all 9 regions of Victoria (with the exception of metro and peri-urban Melbourne). Victoria was the first state or territory to publish drought resilience plans, and the first to kick-off activities with the Implementation Grants.

The RDRP program is what brings us to this extensionAUS platform. The purpose of extensionAUS is to:

share the effort and outcomes that have been achieved or are in progress

provide a space to share new opportunities, events and activities

engage across the regions

connect with interested people and organisations.

The exciting part is there is more to come, with Phase Two of the RDRP program focusing on continuing to implement activities to build drought resilience and preparedness. Activities will be determined by the regions for the regions (within guidelines approved by the Victorian Minister for Agriculture). Activities will need to align with the priorities of each region’s Drought Resilience Plan and be sure to complement what is being delivered through other FDF programs, such as Farm Business Resilience and the Communities program.

With time to 2029 to implement the activities, Phase Two of the RDRP program will deliver real progress in regional drought preparedness and resilience.