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To receive a Kids for the Reef rebate, schools must also register for the Reef Guardian School Program. This engages schools and home educators in activities that promote the protection and sustainability of the Great Barrier Reef and provides access to curriculum-aligned resources.
Costs incurred by teachers and other adults accompanying a school excursion are ineligible under the program. These must be covered by the school or home educator.
A school can submit more than one application for separate excursions or for different students. However, each student is only eligible for the rebate once. It is the school’s responsibility to ensure each student listed in an application has not previously received the rebate.
The Kids for the Reef rebate funding cannot be combined with funding for the same purpose from another Commonwealth, State, Territory or Local Government program. Schools and home educators that have received funding from the Queensland Government’s Great Barrier Reef Education Experience (GBREE) Program can only access Kids for the Reef funding for different excursions and students.
The curriculum-related activities listed in the guidelines are examples. If you can show a Reef-based experience is linked to the Australian Curriculum, please submit an application – or contact us first by phone on 13 28 78 or via email at tourism.grants@austrade.gov.au. Eligible experiences must be delivered by an approved High Standard Tourism Operator on Austrade’s published list.
Schools can engage a travel agent, transport provider or booking agency to assist with their school trip itinerary. However, applications for the rebate can only be submitted by the school itself. Operators or travel intermediaries cannot apply on the school’s behalf.
You must submit your rebate application at least 4 weeks before your school’s excursion. We recommend submitting your application as soon as possible after you have confirmed your itinerary, as funding for the program is capped and applications are processed in order of receipt.
You may still be able to apply if you booked an excursion to the Great Barrier Reef before the program opening date (21 July 2026) but the trip is yet to take place. Your trip must meet the program requirements. The excursion must not start until at least 4 weeks after you have submitted your application. The trip must be completed by 11 June 2028.
Austrade will make 2 payments to successful applicants:
Successful applicants will receive a letter of agreement, which they must sign and return to Austrade. The first payment will be made within 14 days of submission of this signed letter of agreement.
The final payment is made within 4 weeks of the school returning from their trip. It is subject to the school submitting the relevant paperwork.
We will use the shortest distance outlined by Google Maps. (For this program, distances are one-way, calculated by road. This is regardless of how you actually travel to the Reef.)
If only some students in your group are eligible for remoteness loadings, or if you are taking a group that comprises First Nations and non-First Nations students, the relevant loadings should only be used to offset the travel and other costs of those eligible students.
No. Excursions that follow the same itinerary on the same dates require the same application, even if different student year levels are travelling together.
Each school must complete a separate rebate application for its own students, whether or not they are travelling with another school. Each application must include an itinerary with the applicant school’s name on it.
Applications are via SmartyGrants. Applications cannot be accepted by email. We cannot accept late applications. If you’re a first-time SmartyGrants user, you will need to create a free account. Registration gives you secure access to your forms, allowing you to save your application and resume later.
You can contact SmartyGrants Technical Assistance via email at service@smartygrants.com.au or see Technical help guide for applicants. For all other issues, please contact the Tourism Grants team at Austrade on 13 28 78 or tourism.grants@austrade.gov.au.
We will acknowledge receipt of your application by an automatic email through SmartyGrants.
If you find an error in your application after submission, contact us immediately at tourism.grants@austrade.gov.au or on 13 28 78. We do not have to accept any extra information, or requests from you to correct your application after the closing time. If we find an error or information that is missing, we may ask for clarification or additional information from you that will not change the nature of your application.
Your application will be considered through a demand-driven process. Austrade will check your application to ensure it meets the eligibility criteria. Eligible applications will be considered for funding.
We will advise you of the outcome of your application in writing. If you're successful, we'll send you a letter of agreement which you must sign and return to Austrade.
No. The Austrade Program Delegate has final decision-making powers on whether or not you are eligible for a rebate and the rebate amount. There is no administrative review mechanism for these decisions.
To receive payments, applicants must provide details of an Australian bank account registered to the school or home educator.
Austrade will make 2 payments to successful applicants:
Please see the guidelines for further details.
You can spend your funding as soon as you receive it. Funding must be used for the costs of eligible activities within your itinerary. This can include deposits or payments made prior to submitting your application.
Where student numbers reduce between the rebate approval and the trip, the final rebate payment will be adjusted downwards to reflect the actual number of students who took part in the Reef experience. Where a school wishes to increase the number of students after an application is approved a new application will need to be submitted for the additional students at least 4 weeks before the school excursion.
If you’ve received your first payment and gone on your school trip, but the eligible Reef experience could not proceed due to bad weather, sea conditions or operational disruptions, you can still receive your final payment. However, you must show evidence (e.g. cancellation advice, refund documentation) that the experience could not be undertaken at another suitable time during the trip.
Where a school has cancelled an entire trip after receiving its first payment and not rescheduled the trip, Austrade will determine on a case-by-cases basis whether a repayment is required.
Austrade must be advised of any cancellations immediately in writing at tourism.grants@austrade.gov.au.
To receive their final payment, schools need to complete a post-trip report within the timeframe outlined in their letter of agreement. The school will need to confirm final student numbers, itinerary, costs and evidence of payment for the excursion, as well as provide feedback on the rebate program and excursion. The final report will include a declaration that the rebate was spent in accordance with the letter of agreement. Grantees will be able to access the form via SmartyGrants.
Austrade may conduct an audit of grantees, and you may be required to participate. You will also be required to complete a short survey to capture the grant outcomes at 6 months and 12 months after the program ends. We may also interview you or ask you for more information to help us understand how the rebate impacted you and to evaluate how effective the program was in achieving its outcomes. We may contact you up to 2 years after your school undertakes the excursion for more information to assist with this evaluation.
If successful, your grant will be listed on the GrantConnect website within 21 days after the date of effect as required by Section 5.3 of the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles. For further information on how we treat information with regards to privacy and confidentiality, please see Sections 12.3 and 12.4 of the grant guidelines.
If you make a public statement about an activity funded under the program, we require you to acknowledge the grant by using the following:
‘This [name of grant activity or project/services] received grant funding from the Australian Government delivered by Austrade.’