The North East, East Gippsland and West Gippsland CMA’s are about to commence the Victorian Government drought employment program.

The program will be delivered within the East Gippsland and Wellington shire areas over the coming months.

Graeme Dear, CEO of East Gippsland CMA said “the three CMA’s have partnered with Workways; a local employment provider, who will manage the employees on the CMA’s behalf. The CMA’s will focus on assigning the works program to be undertaken.”

The community can expect to see advertisements jointly labelled by the CMA and Workways in local papers and on the Workways website for expressions of interest to join work crews. Based on the response, the CMA will plan works within a reasonable proximity of the crew location.

Katie Warner, CEO North East CMA said, "we expect works to begin around the end of November and continue well into autumn when most pest and weed control is undertaken. For example we are hoping to complete some weed control at the Livingstone Park in Omeo."

Bryan McCormack, CEO Workways said, "we are pleased to partner with the CMA in support of our drought affected community. We hope to receive expressions of interest from any person who is involved in agriculture or associated industries across the two shire areas."

Works will be undertaken on mostly public land including pest and weed control. The CMA’s are coordinating planning with partner agencies and groups to ensure we get a good environmental outcome from the work.

Bryan said "Workways has an environmental arm of our business that has experience in programs such as this. We want to ensure these works are flexible for people, enjoyable to be a part of and help manage weeds and pests in some of our public places for everyone to enjoy."

For further information, please don’t hesitate to contact the CMA’s or workways direct.