Mr Roberts said joint State and Federal Government Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) now extended to 26 Councils in the Gulf, Far North and North Queensland region affected by ex-Tropical Cyclones Olga and Neville.

“Communities in the northern part of Queensland have been seriously impacted by heavy rain, associated flooding and damaging winds as a result of recent tropical cyclones Neville and Olga,” Mr Roberts said.

“Burdekin, Burke, Charters Towers, Cloncurry, Mackay, McKinlay, Palm Island, Richmond and Townsville have now been added to the relief and recovery arrangements,” he said.

“These arrangements will provide assistance and help rebuild damaged public infrastructure in affected communities.

“Under the NDRRA, councils will be able to access funding to cover the cost of restoring essential public assets as well as the cost of counter disaster operations.

“Preliminary estimates of damage are around $49 million to date, and will continue to be assessed.”

Mr Roberts said the assistance did not currently extend to personal hardship, however the situation would continue to be monitored for any cases of personal hardship.

Cyclone assistance has been activated in Burdekin, Burke, Charters Towers, Cloncurry, Mackay, McKinlay, Palm Island, Richmond, Townsville, Carpentaria, Doomadgee, Mornington, Aurukun, Kowanyama, Cairns, Lockhart River, Cassowary Coast, Northern Peninsula, Cook, Pormpuraaw, Croydon, Tablelands, Etheridge, Wujal Wujal, Hope Vale and Yarrabah local government areas.

This takes the number of NDRRA activated shires to 46, including councils activated after heavy rainfall and associated flooding in Northern, Central and South Western Queensland during late December early January.