News from Around the Region

On Wednesday, 28 July, the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Yuelamu office opened the Yuelamu Small Library.

The Community Development Program (CDP) in Yuendumu designed and made bookshelves as part of the Drought Relief funding, and the Yuelamu CDP painted the Yuelamu book shelf. Tarun Avula, Facilities, ordered the books and Aloka Boteju and Minon Perera from Children’s Services delivered some of the boxes of books to Yuelamu. The Yuelamu works crew Mack Murphy, Kenrick Martin and Marcus Briscoe delivered the bookshelf to the office.

A snake was removed from the veranda of a house in Lajamanu at the end of July. This is a warning that when the weather is warm snakes can be active, no matter the season.

The snake was a Black Headed Python, about 2 metres long. It was found and reported by Jane Armstrong, Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Manager Community Safety. It was then caught by Ranger Jonathan Gnanapragasam and relocated about 5 km out of Lajamanu.

It is never safe to handle a snake yourself, and never try to kill a snake. You can report a spotting of a snake to the NT Government by ringing 1800 453 210.

The Engawala School Holiday Program was run by Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Youth, Sport and Recreation (YSR) from 22 June to 17 July. It culminated with a visit by Tommy Dutton of AFLNT on Friday 16 July, who ran two AFL coaching sessions.

There was a morning session for junior players (plus some adults from Engawala), and an afternoon session for older players, including a scratch game on Engawala oval.

Tommy has previously visited Engawala to run similar coaching sessions, and has forged close links with AFL fans in Engawala, several of whom play in organised competitions in Central Australia.

Mark Francis, Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Builder Trainer for the Community Development Program (CDP), has been spearheading some great building projects in the Anmatjere region.

Some of the projects Mark and the training crew are working on are renovation works on a Council house in Ti Tree that was damaged and the Wilora men’s shed.

Ryan Nelson, a CDP Support Officer at Nturiya and Billy Anderson, a job seeker at Nturiya, have been engaged enormously with the Builder Training projects. Billy Anderson is developing towards undertaking a Support Officer role at Nturiya as well.

The old car wrecks that have been in and around Anmatjere have been removed. A car baling project was set up at Ti-Tree and was very efficient; they were able to process a car every eight minutes!

There were triple trailer trucks carting cars from Laramba and Engawala to Ti-Tree for baling as well.

Now that they have completed the baling at Ti-Tree they will move to Yuendumu and bale all the old cars of Nyirripi, Yuelamu and Yuendumu at the Yuendumu waste management facility.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) gives notice in accordance to section 158 of the Local Government Act (2008) that the following rates and charges were declared to apply to the financial year ending 30 June 2022 at the Ordinary Council Meeting held on Friday 30 May 2021. Rates Declaration for 2021-22 is available on our website at  Rates Declaration 2021-22  or at our Council Offices in community as well as at 1 Bagot Street, Alice Springs.

As part of its reengagement strategy with clients, Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP) was on the road to deliver its Careers Expo. Over 13 and 14 July, three teams crisscrossed the region with a single objective: to bring together job seekers and employers in the region.

The themes of this year’s event were:

• Continuing conversations with job seekers on the latest changes to mutual obligations by Government.
• Surveying job seekers to capture their input on CDP servicing.
• Providing a pop-up jobs expo space for employers in the region to exhibit jobs and services to clients.

On Wednesday 14 July the Community Safety Patrol (CSP) successfully recommenced with a full CSP crew in Nyirripi. Nyirripi has lacked a CSP team for about 18 months and Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) has been working with the community to encourage job applications, and have now employed a full team of four, two women and two men. They are Maxie Pollard, Antonia Wilson, Christine Curtis and Lance Turner. 

They plan to work six nights a week, splitting each night in to male and female shifts, with the women working the earlier part of the evening, meeting the men halfway through the night to let them know what’s been happening around community, and the men working the remainder.

The Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) People and Culture Recruitment Team have been busy over April and May running recruitment training in communities. This was the first time the team had been to most communities so it was a great opportunity for them to get to know more of the staff.

The training was aligned to the Recruitment and Selection Standard Operating Procedure with an aim to increase the accuracy and compliance of recruitment paperwork received as well as compliance to the procedure, policy and Local Government Act requirements.

In June 2021, the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP) collaborated with DriveSafe to deliver remote licencing to jobseekers and residents in Yuelamu, Yuendumu, Laramba, Willowra and Anmatjere. Participants across these communities accessed theory classes and road safety education lessons towards their Learner and Provisional licences, and practical driving assessments.

A total of 137 people attended the training. 73 people gained their Learner licences, 12 obtained Provisional licences and 5 participants obtained full licences.