The Hawkesbury racing community has received some good news, with the local Centrelink Crisis Department agreeing to fast-track funds to struggling industry workers affected by the equine influenza (EI) outbreak.

Centrelink representatives took applications from around 60 workers who have been out of pocket since EI was discovered in eight horses at a veterinary clinic just 200 metres from the track on August 31.

Hawkesbury Race Club chief executive Brian Fletcher was delighted with the response from Centrelink.

"They were very helpful and it was great they came here, our people didn't have to go and visit the local Centrelink office which can be a bit embarrassing especially for those who have found themselves out of work through no fault of their own," Fletcher said.

"Now they are in the system and they (Centrelink) said the funds can be fast-tracked to workers as quickly as possible, hopefully they'll get something within the week.

"It was that good and helpful that we're having another meeting next Thursday, we've put that on for the people who couldn't get here today and those who didn't realise it was on."

A large cross-section of workers today applied for the Federal Government's EI Industry Assistance Package that includes a one-off $5,000 business assistance grant for horse-dependent commercial enterprises to cover costs incurred as a direct result of EI and the horse movement ban.

"We had people like farriers and trainers who applied for the $5,000 government grant and people who needed a wage subsidy as well, fortunately that wage subsidy will date back to August 25," Fletcher said.

"It's a bit of a relief for them, it's not a huge amount of money coming in but at least it's something."

Thursday's meeting was a dramatic turnaround from eight days ago when Fletcher said that Centrelink told Hawkesbury staff they wouldn't fast-track payments to them and they would have to join the queue like everybody else.

"That meeting was disappointing but our federal member for Greenway, Louise Markus, has been brilliant in getting this up and running," Fletcher said.

He said that while the good news brightened the mood at Hawkesbury, the track still had an eerie feel about it.

"It's like a morgue, we haven't had a horse work on the track for four days," Fletcher said.

"It's not worth looking at when we are going to race again, the situation changes every day, so there's no point making plans, we'll just have to ride it out."

Meanwhile, Centrelink will hold a forum for Tamworth harness racing participants to answer any queries regarding the federal government's $110 million EI assistance package at the Tamworth Services Club next Tuesday.

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