Anmatjere News

In December Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Aged Care held their bi-monthly meeting, attended by staff from the Alice Springs office and Aged Care Coordinators from Nyirripi, Lajamanu, Willowra, Engawala, Atitjere and Wilora.

The Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Wilora Aged Care Centre is now operating as a fully functioning Aged Care Centre offering all services to Wilora clients.

In December 2021, the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP) collaborated with Civil Train NT and Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT) to deliver Introduction to Civil Construction training in Ti Tree. This was delivered as a joint initiative between Civil Train and CfAT under the NT Government’s Job Trainer program.

Anmatjere has won the Best Small Community award in the 2021 Territory Sustainable Communities Tidy Towns awards, run by Keep Australia Beautiful NT.

Engawala and Laramba also got in on the action with Litter Management commendations awarded to both communities, making it two in a row for Engawala.

At the end of October 2021, the Commercial Services team from Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) converged in Alice Springs for in-house training.

In one of the sessions of the training the team reviewed the upcoming changes to employment services in regional and remote Australia; particularly, Government’s decision to change the Community Development Program (CDP) to a new remote jobs program in 2023. There was also a representative from the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) Central Australia office Engagement Team who attended a session to talk about the provider performance review process.

The Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) 2020-21 annual report has been sent to the Minister for Local Government, Chansey Paech MLA, and is now up on the CDRC website. The annual report shows the progress CDRC has made against the Strategic Plan throughout the financial year and the CDRC annual financial statements. It also includes achievements and stories of the CDRC communities.

You can read the annual report here: 2020-2021 Annual Report

Community cleaning was identified as a priority in the Community Development Program (CDP) community survey ran in July. CDP has created a program to mobilise communities to clean up their locations. The first cleaning exercise was held at Nturiya (Station) on 6 October and the program continued on 12, 13 and 14 October in Pmara Jutunta (6 Mile), Nturiya and Wilora respectively.

Photo: Mark Francis, Builder Trainer, Billy Anderson, Support Officer, Ryan Nelson, Support Officer, Clifford Martin, job seeker and Francis Madonko, Program Manager CDP Activities, finishing the clean-up.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP) Support Officer Ryan Nelson and Billy Anderson, a job seeker at Nturiya, have removed grass growing through the Nturiya basketball court surface, removed rubbish and used a brush cutter to cut grass around the edge of the court.

Billy Anderson also assisted Mark Francis, CDRC Builder Trainer, to reattach a basketball hoop, allowing the kids of Nturiya to play basketball safely and properly again.

Photo above: Removing the grass from the surface of the basketball court.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP) surveyed clients to get input from job seekers and the community on what they thought of the quality of services provided by the CDP program and to gain insight on areas respondents wanted to see improvement in. 74 respondents were surveyed across the communities of Ti Tree, Willowra, Laramba, Yuelamu and Yuendumu at the CDP Careers Expo at the beginning of the financial year.

Community clean-ups was rated the number one activity by 24.8% of respondents, gardening was rated second (21.3%), arts and crafts third (19.65%), furniture making fourth (17.9%) and health and nutrition fifth (16.4%). The top two suggested areas of improvement were: increased training (55% of respondents) and activities (19%).

Work has begun on fitting out the former Wilora works depot as a men’s shed. This was a result of a community survey and a request from the Wilora community. Preliminary plans were drawn up with contributions from community members and Mark Wilson, Team Leader Activities Community Development Program (CDP. The preliminary plans have now been professionally produced by a draftsperson ready for quotations from Power and Water and electricians. 

As part of the Builder Trainer activities, the shed has been cleaned out and work begun on preparing for a concrete slab in an annexed section of the shed by Mark Francis, CDP Builder Trainer, Greg Corbett, CDP Wilora Support Officer, and volunteer job seekers in Wilora.