Australian Heritage Grants 2024-25 Grant Opportunity

The Australian Heritage Grants 2024-25 provides up to $5.347 million in funding for National Heritage List places to conserve and protect places of historic and national heritage value, and increase engagement with the public.

Open
Closes in 11 days

Closing date: Friday 25 October 2024 5:00pm AEDT Fri 25 Oct 2024 5:00pm AEDT

What do you get?

A grant of up to $400,000, to cover up to 80% of eligible project expenditure.

Who is this for?

Site owners or site managers of National Heritage Listed places, with support from these entities.

Overview

The Australian Heritage Grants 2024-25 is round 7 of the Australian Heritage Grants Program and will run over the 2024-25 to 2026-27 financial years.

This grant opportunity was announced as part of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water’s Portfolio Budget Statement Outcome 2, which aims to:

  • conserve, protect and sustainably manage our natural resources including through a nature positive approach
  • protect and conserve our natural and cultural heritage
  • reduce and regulate the use of pollutants and hazardous substances, and
  • take a leadership role on these issues internationally.

The objectives of the grant opportunity are to:

  • support owners and managers of heritage places, along with community groups, and other non-government entities to protect places recognised for their outstanding historic and natural heritage values to the nation
  • provide funding to strengthen recognition, management, conservation and public engagement of/on places in Australia that are included in the National Heritage List.

The intended outcomes of the grant opportunity are:

  • conserved and protected places of historic and natural heritage value
  • increased public engagement with National Heritage-listed places.

Check if you can apply

You can apply if you meet the eligibility criteria. The eligibility criteria are a set of rules that describe who we can consider for this grant. You can apply if you:

  • are an eligible entity
  • have an eligible project
  • are a site owner or manager of a National Heritage List place or have a current letter of support from the owner/manager
  • have eligible expenditure
  • can meet your share of the project costs.

The rules are in the grant opportunity guidelines.

You can apply if you:

  • have an Australian Business Number (ABN), unless you are not entitled to an ABN, and are either:
    • the site owner of the listed place/s on the National Heritage List (NHL), or
    • the site manager of the listed place/s on the NHL, or
    • where you are not the site owner or manager of the listed place/s on the NHL, provide a current letter of support for the 2024-25 application from the site owner and/or site manager of the listed place/s.

You must also be one of the following entities:

  • an Australian state/territory Government agency or body
  • an Australian local government agency or body as defined in section 14 of the guidelines
  • a Commonwealth corporate entity
  • an entity, incorporated in Australia (this includes Indigenous land management organisations registered with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations)
  • a registered Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land council
  • a partnership
  • a publicly funded research organisation (PFRO) as defined in section 14 of the guidelines
  • an individual (if you are applying as an individual, you must be 18 years of age or older).

Partner with other organisations

Joint applications are acceptable, provided you have a lead organisation who is the main driver of the project and is eligible to apply. For further information on joint applications, refer to section 7.2 of the guidelines.

You must complete your project by 31 March 2027.

Your project must carry out one or more of the following at one or more listed places in Appendix A of the guidelines:

  • maintain, protect or conserve the National Heritage Values
  • repair essential infrastructure impacted by severe weather events where repairs are not covered by insurance and are essential to the maintenance, protections and/or conservation of the National Heritage Values
  • improve engagement with, and awareness of, the National Heritage Values
  • improve access to a listed place.

You can apply for a grant between $25,000 and $400,000, which will be up to 80% of eligible project expenditure.

You can use this grant funding to support:

  • salaries for staff working on the project, direct salary and on-costs (maximum of 30 per cent allowance for on-costs) for personnel directly employed for the project activities (on a pro-rata basis relative to their time commitment)
  • contractor costs or expert advice
  • research costs
  • communication and promotional costs
  • costs you incur to obtain planning, environmental or other regulatory approvals during the project period
  • materials and equipment hire/purchase
  • domestic travel including meals, accommodation and transportation
  • catering required to conduct project activities such as workshops at the Heritage site locality
  • project contingency costs up to a maximum of 10% of the eligible project costs (note that payments are based on actual costs incurred)
  • administrative costs related to the project.

How to apply

Check if you’re ready to apply for a grant

Finding a suitable grant opportunity is just the start of the process to get funding. The application process can take time and effort. Understanding the entire process will help you be grant ready and may improve your chances of getting funding.

Use our checklist to find out what it takes to apply for a grant.

When you're ready to apply

Apply using our online portal:

  1. Create or log into your portal account.
  2. Follow the instructions to complete your application.
  3. Submit your application before the close date.

Make sure you include enough detail and supporting evidence in your application to help us decide whether to award you the grant.

Don’t submit the application until it’s complete. 

Mandatory attachments

You must include all mandatory attachments to your application before your submit it. We cannot consider applications that don't have all the required attachments.

In particular, you will need to prepare in advance:

  • where you are not the site owner or manager, a current letter of support for the proposed project from the site owner of the heritage listed place/s
  • a project plan to support assessment criteria 2 (your capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project).

First we check that you meet the eligibility criteria. Eligible applications will be assessed against the assessment criteria. Only applications that score at least 60% against the assessment criteria will then be referred to the DCCEEW Moderation Committee. The Committee will compare all referred applications before recommending which projects to fund.

The assessment criteria are a set of rules that describe how we must assess each application.

We give each criterion a certain number of points.

  • Assessment criterion 1: The extent that your project maintains, protects, conserves and improves access to places on the National Heritage List (40 points)
  • Assessment criterion 2: Capacity, capability and resources to deliver the project (30 points)
  • Assessment criterion 3: Impact of the grant funding on your project (30 points)

The amount of detail and supporting evidence you provide should be relative to the project size, complexity and grant amount requested.

The Minister for the Environment and Water decides which grants to approve taking into account the recommendations of the committee.

Apply now

Apply for the Australian Heritage Grants 2024-25 grant opportunity now.

Before you apply, make sure you:

  • read and understand the grant opportunity guidelines
  • where you are not the site owner or manager, have a current letter of support for the proposed project from the site owner of the heritage listed place/s you are applying the grant for.
Apply now

Sample applications

The best way to understand what information you need to provide is to start an application. We have also provided a version to download at the bottom of this page.

Technical help

See our customer portal's frequently asked questions to help with your queries. If you can't find your answer, contact us for assistance.

Past and future rounds

Contact

Need help?

Let us answer your question over the phone, email or live chat.

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Key documents

Grant opportunity guidelines

pdf · 0.64 MB docx · 0.29 MB

Sample application form

pdf · 0.42 MB docx · 0.11 MB

Sample grant agreement

pdf · 0.56 MB docx · 0.15 MB

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