Awards and Recognition

Central Desert Regional Council’s (CDRC) team in the Australasian Management Challenge NT division have returned home with the trophy.

This is the second time CDRC has won the competition with Central Dust Devils winning in 2021. Desert Think Tank are looking to bring home the Australasian trophy when they compete in Adelaide in August. This has never been won by an NT team before, and Desert Think Tank are confident they can give the opposition from all Australian states and New Zealand a run for their money.

“Even though winning is great, it’s really about the learning and experience that is gained, which we can use to increase the quality of services that we deliver to our residents,” said two time winner, Andrew Cook.

“The Management Challenge was a fantastic experience, one I got to share with awesome team mates. Winning was an added bonus!” said Ashlee Fuller.

“It is a great learning experience, and I recommend it to anyone that has an opportunity to join in,” said Abhaya Sharma.

“It was with pride that I mentored such a strong, resilient, calm and professional team. From the preparation tasks, the Pre-Challenge task to the final day the team demonstrated their ability to come together from across the Council and work as an extremely professional and collaborative team. They supported each other every step of the way and very importantly stayed on task throughout the day even when “angry customers and agitated employees” in role plays tried to throw them off task. It was a great opportunity to support the learning of the team around Local Government concepts and report writing skills. I look forward to the next stages of the competition,” said mentor Rachel Wilson, Director Corporate Services.

The Desert Think Tank team members were (in second photo): Abhaya Sharma, Ashlee Fuller, Patchouli Cross, Andrew Cook, Marijhan Samy, mentor Rachel Wilson, and Daniel Shane.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) entered Yuendumu in the Top Tiny Tourism Town Award it has been declared the Northern Territory winner! 

This also means Yuendumu will be the Northern Territory finalist in this category of the Australian Top Tourism Awards.

The Top Tourism Town Awards recognise the value of tourism to towns and communities across Australia and celebrates the diversity and outstanding regional destinations of our country.

The winning entry video.

Painting at Warlukurlangu Art Centre Yuendumu           Yuendumu Landscape

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) has been recognised as a Winner for Employer of Choice in The Australian Business Awards 2021. The Australian Business Awards for Employer of Choice recognises organisations that develop leading workplaces that maximise the full potential of their workforce through established policies and practices that demonstrate effective employee recruitment, engagement and retention.

CDRC is a Local Government entity that operates in the Northern Territory, to the north of Alice Springs, with boundaries that go from the Queensland Border to the WA border covering a land area of 282,064km2. The municipal area is home to approximately 4,200 people and spread over eleven Indigenous communities and one town. Council’s workforce of around 240 staff, over 69% of whom are Indigenous, is spread over those twelve locations and also in the Alice Springs based headquarters. The area is home to the most disadvantaged people in the Northern Territory, and CDRC’s core mission is to build sustainable communities through service delivery, advocacy, and community engagement.

CDRC works hard to build sustainable communities through traditional local government services such as rubbish and roads, and provision of community services. CDRC builds local employment pathways through Community Development Program (CDP) provision as well as through increasing flexible local employment opportunities, and ensuring that community services provide culturally appropriate, community-led outcomes. 

Diane Hood, CEO of CDRC, says the award provides recognition of the organisation’s progression through an organisational change process over the last three to four years to improve employee recruitment, engagement and retention.

“Central Desert Regional Council is proud to be recognised as an Employer of Choice at the Australian Business Awards 2021. We have worked hard over a number of years to become a fairer workplace with a ‘no surprises’ culture. This award recognises the effort of all of our staff throughout this period. We work in a challenging environment – physically, geographically and culturally, but our people come to Central Desert Regional Council for a challenge, an adventure and for personal and professional growth. It’s very exciting for our staff to be recognised on a national stage and that a relatively small and isolated organisation can accomplish that. Recruiting to remote indigenous communities is perpetually challenging, our Employer of Choice award will help us to spread the message that we are an organisation that values our staff and that making a decision to live and work in remote Australia can be a positive and rewarding career choice,” said Diane Hood, CEO, CDRC.

As winners of the EOC 2021, CDRC will participate in the international chapter of the program at the World Business Awards.

The CDRC Councillors with MLA Chansey Paech (second from left) and the Executive Management team including CEO Diane Hood.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) won the Australasian Management Challenge (AMC) Northern Territory division against local governments from the top end, including Darwin and Palmerston. The competition was run on 29 April in Alice Springs and as the winners they will be in the Australasian finals in August.

In its 29th year, the AMC is a “simulation-based team building, learning and networking program using real local government themes – the types of issues that a senior management team in a council would most likely face.” The teams of six are challenged to respond to a series of tasks in a unique one-day, fast paced, ‘pressure cooker’ environment.

This helps team members to develop skills and become more effective in the way they lead, think, communicate, negotiate, make decisions, analyse and engage.

The CDRC team (called Central Dust Devils) was made up of Carmen Hunter, Warren Kenney, Coco Petit (in front), Andrew Cook, Jacob Khumalo and Aaron Tannahill, as well as their mentor, Irenee McCreevy (holding trophy in second photo).

Central Desert Regional Council has won the category prize 'Boosting Productivity through Infrastructure' category winner' at the 2015 National Awards for Local Government.

President Adrian Dixon said it is excellent news that their program 'Creating great landfills in central Australian remote Aboriginal communities' had been given the nod by their peers on a national platform.

Central Desert, Barkly and MacDonnell regional councils and LGANT have worked very hard on this program with the support of the NT Department of Health.  The program set about strategically cleaning up landfill sites, installing public drop off and recycling areas, digging safer pits, fencing them off from the general public and training Indigenous work crews in covering and compacting the rubbish," he said.

To read more on the awards click 2015 National Award for Local Government booklet.

The Central Desert Regional Council and the Yuendumu Mediation & Justice Committee have been recognised for their great work in building Peace in Yuendumu at the 2014 Australian Crime and Violence Prevention Awards in Canberra in November 2014.

The Council and the Mediation Committee were one of only 10 recipients nation wide who were awarded merit certificates that put them in the running for the overall winner of the National Community Crime & Violence Prevention Award.  Griffith Youth Forensic Service from Queensland was named the overall winner.