Grants valued at more than $50,000 were presented to members of local community organisations by the Northern Grampians Shire Council at a presentation ceremony recently.

Sixteen groups were successful in obtaining funding through the 2008-2009 Northern Grampians Shire Council Community Grants Program.

Successful groups included the St Arnaud and Stawell Rotary Clubs, St Arnaud Country Club, Stawell Pistol Club, St Arnaud RSL and the Great Western Progress Association.

Stawell Biarri Genealogy Group was successful in obtaining a grant of $1000. They will put the money towards purchasing a laptop to assist in the running of their next event, the National Family History Expo.

Kevin Erwin accepted a cheque for $5000 on behalf of Stawell Rotary Club. This money will be used for the construction of a barbecue area at Federation Park.

Team Leader of Community Development at the shire, Michael Bailey said it was fantastic to see the community undertaking projects for the development of such a wide variety of activities.

``The funded projects show a significant amount of wider community benefit which will put us in a great position for the future. Council is in the fortunate position of being able to support these projects and make them achievable,'' Mr Bailey said.

``While the community benefits significantly from the completed projects, the social connectedness achieved through the groups developing projects and applications can not be underestimated.''