From bringing the town’s Christmas tree decorations back to life, to restoring an historic memorial board at the museum, Longreach community groups have secured funding from the airport’s latest Community Benefit Fund to deliver a range of valuable initiatives.

In total four community groups have been successful and will each receive around $1000. Eligible categories including health and wellbeing, community safety, education, environment and sustainability, arts and culture and indigenous projects.

The successful applicants included Central West Suicide Prevention Network, Longreach Archival and Historical Research Group, Longreach Men’s Shed and the Longreach Scout Group.

The groups were selected after a record number of submissions were received for this year’s annual Community Benefit Fund, run by Longreach Airport’s parent company Queensland Airports Limited (QAL).

Longreach Airport Chief Operating Officer Kevin Gill said it was a privilege for the company to support such worthy grassroots initiatives.

“The Community Benefit Fund is an important vehicle for us to support our local community in a meaningful way,” he said.

“The fund enables us to help grassroots organisations get individual initiatives up and running, which may otherwise struggle to find funding. We look forward to working with our grant recipients and seeing their projects come to life.”

This year a new streamlined application process was delivered for the Community Benefit Fund, making it quicker and easier for groups to apply.

“This year it took each organisation less than an hour to apply for the funds,” Mr Gill said.

One of the successful organisations this year is the Longreach Archival and Historical Research Group, which is working alongside the Powerhouse and Historical Museum to upgrade its exhibits.

During the process of reviewing, cataloging and archiving exhibits, the group discovered several brass plaques commemorating soldiers who were once members of the Longreach Club.

“The plaques were rescued from the debris of the fire which destroyed the Longreach Club in 2002,” said Longreach Archival and Historical Research Group president Kaye Kuhn.

“We plan to reconstruct the memorial board and research the members before making it a permanent exhibit in the Powerhouse Museum. These plaques represent the only memorial board in Longreach as all previous memorials have succumbed to fire and have been lost.

“This grant from Longreach Airport will allow us to restore the memorial and provide adequate storage for data and materials to ensure access for historians in the future.”

The fund, together with the QAL corporate sponsorship program, supports more than 80 local community, business, environmental and tourism initiatives and events across Queensland and NSW each year.

The fund will reopen in early 2020 through the Gold Coast Airport and QAL websites.

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2019 Community Benefit Fund recipients:

- Central West Suicide Prevention Network Inc

- Longreach Archival and Historical Research Group Inc

- Longreach Men’s Shed Inc

- Longreach Scout Group