In June 2016, Tasmania was subject to a widespread flood event that resulted in loss of land, property, stock infrastructure and most unfortunately life. In response to the flooding, the Tasmanian State Government developed the Agricultural Landscape Rehabilitation Scheme (ALRS) to assist flood-affected landowners and communities through funding projects aimed at rehabilitation of land and stream systems damaged as a result of the June 2016 floods. The focus of the program was to restore the capacity of the primary production sector and reduce impacts of future floods on productive land.

The program was state funded, led by NRM North, a Tasmanian regional NRM body based in Launceston and run in partnership with both NRM South and Cradle Coast NRM. The $4 million ALRS funding was open to landholders and communities across 20 local government areas and received a total of 172 nominations from affected individuals or groups.  A total of 156 individuals/groups were subsequently successful in receiving funding to assist in the implementation of relevant projects.

There is a high degree of variability across the river systems in Tasmania.  Resultantly, the nature and scale of flood related damage was also highly variable. It was also evident that the flood impacts were influenced by historic and on-going land management practices as much as the June 2016 flood event itself.

This paper discusses the adopted method and key lessons learnt from the implementation of a state-wide flood recovery program.