Mallacoota Genoa (Bidawal country) in the far East Gippsland region of Victoria has been home to 3MGB community radio station for the past 29 years. Offering live programming for around 50 hours a week the station also supports the community with emergency broadcasting.
During the 2019/20 Mallacoota bushfires 3MGB was a valued source of on-the-ground information for the community. During the height of the emergency, power blackouts caused by the ferocious fires took the station off air for several days.
CBF funding paid for a new back-up generator to ensure the station can continue providing critical information during future emergencies. The new diesel generator is integrated into 3MGB’s solar/battery system and automatically takes over if the battery runs low during a prolonged power failure. This provides peace of mind to the community as it prepares for future emergencies.
The bushfires also seriously affected the station’s revenue from sponsorships and fundraising, as the community dealt with the impacts of the fires. Our grants helped relieve some of the financial burden for the station during this time so it could focus on retaining presenters and other volunteers and supporting the community in the aftermath of the fires.
“The CBF grant meant we could promptly purchase the new backup generator at a time when everyone was just trying to come to terms with recovering after the bushfires.” – Graham Oakley, 3MGB Mallacoota
About our grants
We run two Content and Development & Operations grant rounds each year, usually in January and July.
Quick Response Grants are also available outside our grant rounds for community media organisations that are experiencing emergencies.
Grant round dates
Check our Key dates page for the next grant round.
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