SEVERAL community projects in the Bourke shire are set to get underway after receiving an injection of funds from the state government.

The funding announcement came last week from NSW Deputy Premier Paul Toole, who was travelling through various parts of Western NSW with Minister for Western NSW Dugald Saunders and Minister for Regional Health Bronnie Taylor.

Mr Toole said the government would commit $5.9 million to help fund 14 projects that support the recovery of remote Aboriginal communities in the Central Darling and Bourke Shires.

"These projects have been specifically chosen to improve local amenities and help these communities bounce back from COVID-19, after they experienced high rates of infections and were significantly impacted by lockdowns,” Mr Toole said.

“We’ve worked with the Aboriginal communities here in Wilcannia, Enngonia and Bourke to identify projects that have strong local support and will make a real difference to the everyday lives of local residents.”

Among these projects located in Bourke are upgrades to local youth and men's hubs, the pool, the CBD, the removal and clean-up of old dwellings, installing two pontoons in Bourke River and improvements to the Bourke Fishing Reserve.

Minister for Western NSW Dugald Saunders said after a few tough years in the regions, it was important for rural communities to feel like they weren't missing out and continued to grow and develop.

“These projects will go a long way to help people get back on their feet and allow families and local businesses to come back even stronger than before,” Mr Saunders said.

During the tour, the deputy premier and two ministers met with a variety and range of groups while in Far West NSW, including the Bourke PCYC and Bourke Shire Council.

ABOVE: The Bourke PCYC was one of the locations visited by the deputy premier - who is also Minister for Regional NSW and Minister for Police - during his regional trip.

"The Deputy Premier (also) visited Broken Hill and Bourke police stations to get an understanding of some of the issues local police are dealing with on a daily basis," a spokesperson for Mr Toole said.

Despite receiving requests from local media to attend these meetings, they were kept private and weren't open to the local community.

While he said he could understand the idea behind respecting the privacy of the people involved, former Bourke councillor and chairman of local radio station 2WEB said he thought keeping the community away from these meetings might prevent the ministers from hearing from a cross-section of the Bourke community.

"I know the Bourke council has been elected as representatives of the community but I think they should be talking to more people in community outside the select few representatives (they visited)," Mr Cole said.

"They were talking about how they wanted to hear the communities ideas and concerns. (However), if you want community feedback, you really have to talk to the community."

Despite this minor concern, Mr Cole was pleased to see the collection of ministers make the effort to visit the Bourke and other parts of western NSW and distribute funding to support them, saying it served as a reminder that bush communities weren't being forgotten.

He said he also had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Mr Saunders and Mrs Taylor where he raised a number of points that were of a concern to the Bourke community, including a new wave of youth crime.

"Youth crime gone to a different level where they're actually using knives to threaten people, asking for credit cards, wallets, keys and then taking off in their cars only to burn and wreck them, this is something new," he said.

"It makes me concerned as a community member - I have an aged mother, family and friends all living here and I would hate something to happen to them.

"While the PCYC, Maranguka and other programs do a lot for keeping youth focused in Bourke and teaching them the way to survive in society, it seems there's a group of youths who are not touched by them and need some other measures to control this very different behavior."

According to Mr Cole, Mr Saunders and Mrs Taylor did take everything he told them on board and agreed that there seemed to be a new seriousness to youth crime which needed to be addressed.