Australia has two official front doors for finding government funding, and they are built for different jobs. Using the wrong one is a common reason people conclude there are no grants for their business.
The business.gov.au grants and programs finder
A guided search aimed at businesses. You filter by location, industry, business structure, type of support, objective, business stage and status, and it returns matching Commonwealth and state programs. It takes a few minutes, and you can shortlist results and have them emailed to you.
Use it when you do not yet know what you are looking for, or when you want state and federal options side by side.
Its weakness is currency. Aggregated listings can lag the administering agency, so always finish on the agency's own page before you start drafting.
GrantConnect
GrantConnect is the Australian Government's centralised, whole-of-government grants information system, and official guidance describes it as the authoritative source for Commonwealth grants information.
Non-corporate Commonwealth entities must publish grant opportunities and their guidelines there, and must publish awarded grants within 21 working days of the agreement taking effect. Registration is free and lets you set up automated notifications.
Use it when you want the legal record: what is genuinely open, the actual guidelines document, and who has been funded before.
Which to use when
- Scoping what exists at all: the business.gov.au finder.
- Confirming a Commonwealth round is genuinely open: GrantConnect.
- Reading the real rules: the guidelines document, not the summary page.
- State and territory programs: the relevant state department's own grants page or schedule.
- Judging your odds: GrantConnect's awarded grants, which show who has won this program before and at what value.
One rule change worth knowing
The Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles 2024 replaced the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Guidelines 2017 on 1 October 2024. If a template, checklist or adviser still refers to the 2017 CGRGs, that is a reliable signal the material has not been updated in some time.