If you have not received the survey please contact Pat Brooks from the Rural Lands Protection Board on 6828 1047.

The survey is the beginning of the process of applying for exceptional circumstances funding from the Federal Government.

The objective of the survey is not to provide all the information that is to be collated but to simply provide a generalised overview of the situation in the district.

However there are some difficult questions asked, such as the financial questions. This is a new requirement of the exceptional circumstances application and one that cannot be avoided.

I would like to make a few points concerning the financial questions:

If you choose not to answer parts of the survey, please send it back anyway as we need to obtain a level of survey response that is adequate to the criteria requested by the federal government; and it is fine to fill in the financial question with hypothetical numbers.

For example, you could fill in the assets as being 100, the debt as 30 and the equity as 70.

To ensure confidentiality, the surveys received will be opened, collated and destroyed by the rural financial counsellor only.

Lastly, if people require assistance to complete the survey, please contact me on 6828 2049.

Depending on numbers in each area of the district, a group talk or individual visits will be undertaken.

Keith Whiteman

rural financial counsellor,

Walgett Shire