Regional Economic Development Grants inject more than $500k into Great Southern

More than $500,000 will be shared by Great Southern recipients of Regional Economic Development grants announced in Albany on Friday. Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said two Albany-based projects, a Denmark business, a Katanning-based program and a Broomehill Village revitalisation project would share $564,000 in funding from round five of the RED grants. In one of her final ministerial announcements before her retirement, Ms MacTiernan congratulated the grant recipients working to drive economic development. “To stimulate regional economic development, the best thing we can do is to work with local business, entrepreneurs and other social business enterprises to really give them an opportunity to scale up,” she said. Family-owned King River business Direct Seeding and Harvesting Equipment received $150,000 to further bolster its in-house manufacturing capabilities through the purchase of a laser-cutting machine. After being named business person of the year at the Great Southern Business Awards in October, Direct Seeding managing director Stewart Mactaggart said his company had made a concerted effort to improve its manufacturing capabilities. Direct Seeding’s Will Mahoney, who accepted the grant on behalf of Mr Mactaggart, said the company had been able to grow significantly over the past two years and the grant “would go a long way”. “We’ve just established a second site so that we have separate fabrication and a separate assembly warehouse site,” he said. “This grant will go a long way, so thank you very much.” Denmark civil construction company MCC Contractors was awarded $149,000 to expand its facilities, which will enable it to compete for bigger tenders. MCC Contractors director Matt Candy said he was grateful that through the RED grant his company would have the opportunity to continue growing. Even since we did this application we’ve gone from about 24 employees to 42,” he said. “This was all about trying to get some more office space for our guys. “We’re pretty crammed in there at the moment. “This will helps us a lot and help us keep people employed in the local area.” Funding awarded to the Jaycees Community Foundation will allow the Australian Wildflower Gardens amphitheatre at Albany’s Historic Whaling Station to be upgraded. The station’s general manager Elise van Gorp said the $64,250 grant to upgrade the amphitheatre would enable the gardens to host bigger events. “We have a beautiful amphitheatre up in windflower gardens but this will really increase our versatility in terms of what we can offer,” she said. “It will create a soundshell cover for the existing stage and we’ll also be able to terrace some of our grassed seating area. “That means we’ll be able to support a range of different performances by providing cover for those performing, better seating opportunities and a greater level of inclusivity.” The Broomehill Village Co-operative was awarded $151,000 towards its efforts to refurbish the town’s historic Imperial Hotel. The McGovern Foundation received $50,250 to help run its Wanderer Program in Katanning, which provides practical support to young Indigenous Australians and Torres Strait Islanders by helping them get their driver’s licences.