Crown Reserves Improvement Fund - General 2024-25

The Applicant acknowledges and agrees that:

• submission of this application does not guarantee funding will be granted for any project, and the Department expressly reserves its right to accept or reject this application at its discretion;
• it must bear the costs of preparing and submitting this application and the Department does not accept any liability for such costs, whether or not this application is ultimately accepted or rejected; and
• it has read the Funding Guidelines for the Program and has fully informed itself of the relevant program requirements.

By submitting this application form, the Applicant acknowledges and agrees that:

• if this project application is successful, the relevant details of the project will be made public, including details such as the names of the organisation (Applicant) and any partnering organisation (state government agency or non-government organisation), project title, project description, location, anticipated time for completion and amount awarded;
• the Department will use reasonable endeavours to ensure that any information received in or in respect of this application which is clearly marked ‘Commercial-in-confidence’ or ‘Confidential’ is treated as confidential, however, such documents will remain subject to the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009 (NSW) (GIPA Act); and
• in some circumstances the Department may release information contained in this application form and other relevant information in relation to this application in response to a request lodged under the GIPA Act or otherwise as required or permitted by law.

• The project must be on NSW Crown managed land (including land managed by an appointed Crown Land Manager)
• Please note: Freehold Showgrounds, Commons and Freehold School of Arts are not eligible in the 2024-25 funding round. Crown land directly managed by Local Land Services (LLS) is not eligible, please contact your local LLS office
• The Crown land manager must have no outstanding overdue CRIF final project reports as at the round closing date
• Non-council Crown land managers must have submitted their 2023-24 annual report to the Department by the round closing date via the Reserve Manager portal - CrownTracker Portal (nsw.gov.au)

The application must be authorised by the official manager of a Crown reserve. The person/organisation entering the online application must be either:

• an authorised person of the reserve’s Crown land manager (see Table 1 below), or
• a user group representative or officer of the applicant organisation with an official letter of authorisation from the appropriate authorised person from the table below.

Table 1. List of authorised persons eligible to apply for funding

• The application must address the funding round objective. For 2024-25 the funding round objective for general grant applications is:

To financially support projects that will have a high community impact.

Please note: Day to day maintenance items and administration costs do not meet this objective and are not eligible under this objective. Strategic emergency grants will be available in 2024-25 for small value grants to address urgent safety or asset management issues on strategically important Crown land. Further details, including the assessable criteria will be made available on the Reserve Manager website once they are finalised.

The minimum grant amount is $100,000 (inc GST) and maximum amount is $1,000,000 (inc GST). Loans are not available as part of this year’s funding round.

• Activity must be consistent with s12.29 of the Crown Land Management Act 2016 - Crown Land Management Act 2016 No 58
• The application must relate to a project or activity that has not yet commenced
• Appropriate quotes / cost estimates must be provided with the application: 
  • At least one written quote must be provided for each activity (sub-project) element costing $30,000 or under, with at least 3 written quotes being preferred for activity elements over $30,000 up to $150,000. Amounts over $150,000 will require an acceptable cost estimate and a commitment to procurement via a competitive public tender.
  • Due to supply chain issues, applications will be eligible if they include only one quote for each activity element however, this will be at the risk of scoring poorly if the quote does not represent good value for money. It is strongly encouraged that applications include up to 3 quotes to demonstrate value for money.
  • Local government (Councils) are preferred to have up to 3 quotes for activity elements over $30,000 up to $250,000, above which they must go to public tender as per Section 55 of the Local Government Act 1993.
  • Estimates will be acceptable when the local government (Council) is the land manager and is undertaking the works themselves. However, they must provide a comprehensive breakdown of activities and costs (hours, materials etc) to enable an informed assessment and will still be assessed for value for money.

Applicants will not be allowed to submit information that enhances their application after the closing date to ensure probity of process is maintained.

• Application meets eligibility criteria (as listed above)
• Signed written authorisation (if CLM is not the applicant). Authorisation form located in CRIF guidelines - Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (nsw.gov.au) 
• CLM contact and bank account details
• CLM bank statement
• Appropriate quotes / cost estimates
• Supporting documents

Funding Team contact details: 

T 1300 886 235 (option 5) E reservefunding@crownland.nsw.gov.au