The dining and entertainment venue opened its doors as a safe haven for the community who were experiencing the unknown as flames swept into Lithgow on December 21.

Staff made the most of their limited facilities to cater for the hundreds of uncertain and scared community members that came through the doors.

Three years later, the community is still recovering and Lithgow Workies general manager Geoff Wheeler wants to be better prepared in the instance of another natural disaster.

"Hopefully it's a long time away but it will happen again, unfortunately, but we'll be more prepared," he said.

To be more prepared, the Lithgow Workies is set to undergo upgrades in its kitchen and receive new equipment thanks to $683,349 in Federal funding as part of the Black Summer Bushfire Recovery Grant program.

"This grant is going to put us in good stead to be able to improve our services to our community," Mr Wheeler said.

He said during the days leading up to the fire, he did his best to ensure the Workies was prepared to offer food, accommodation and emergency support with the resources they had.

"The board had an emergency meeting and we had to make sure we had enough food and water, traditionally we are a big consumer of food on site but we ordered extra anyway," he said.

"We knew Saturday was going to be the day and the weather reports weren't wrong. The winds were between 50 and 60 kilometres and it was about 38 degrees and it was chaos."

Mr Wheeler said people started to arrive at the club around midday and he had people coming through that didn't know what their futures held.

"I had people come through that front door that didn't know where their husbands were, children and elderly people, people I knew, it was very, very emotional," he said.

Mr Wheeler said it was a day he won't ever forget and commended his staff for the way they handled a traumatic situation.

"Our staff stood up and just dealt with it. They dug in deep, they're not registered psychologists or anything but they dealt with the situation with their human compassion and being pleasant to people and reassuring them," he said.

"It was a tough day, I don't think I'll ever forget that as long as I live, because it was horrific, just dealing with people that didn't know whether they're going to have a home to go back to or not."

The Club also welcomed people's animals into the gardens and provided them with food and water.

"Overall, our club handled it very well, our staff and all emergency services worked as a team, and it was great," Mr Wheeler said.

He said the grant meant a lot and he was excited for the Workies to become more efficient.

"We'll be safer and quicker at getting food out to both people on the front lines and people that come into the club as well as emergency service personnel that come in here in need of some meals after a hard day's yakka on the front line," he said.

"We're not saviours or anything we just do what we have to do for our community."

The upgrades will include new kitchen equipment, a heated grab-and-go area and new flooring in the service area to improve safety for staff.

"We've got a very good team at the Workies but we're going to give them the tools to keep improving their standards and ability to work in a very high volume market," Mr Wheeler said.

Federal Member for Calare and Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel Andrew Gee was in Lithgow on the day the fire hit and was pleased to announce the latest round of funding.

"It [the fire] was traumatic and there was a great fear and uncertainty and apprehension that people just didn't know what the future held," he said.

"But this club continued to function, people came to the Workies and got the sense that there was a calmness in order and there were emergency services and agencies here to help them.

"It just gave them that sense that okay, 'I think we can get through this, no matter how bad it is out there, here at the club, I'm okay here, and if I stay here, I'll be safe and they'll look after me'.

"That is a great credit to the club and their staff for their actions that day," he said.

In 2021 the Lithgow Workies Club also received $486,747 for a fixed diesel generator under the Bushfire Local Economic Recovery funding program.

The Australian Government has added an additional $110 million to the program to provide extra support to those living in affected communities, including Lithgow.