Yuelamu News

Last Wednesday was International Women’s Day, which is celebrated every March 8. This day is about striving for a gender equal world, as well as celebrating women in all their diversity.

Yuelamu’s recent rains have been welcomed by the community of Yuelamu in what has been a good start to the wet season for Central Australia.

Works Team Leader Mack Murphy cutting the Yuelamu Aged Care facility grass earlier this month.Yuelamu has received nice rain over the month of November, resulting in fast growing thick green grass around the entire community of Yuelamu.

Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Field Officers have been working tirelessly over the past month cutting the fresh green grass for the community residents to have access to the available facilities in Yuelamu, including contracted agencies.

It has been over two years since Yuelamu represented Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) at the Southern Cup Basketball Tournament in Alice Springs. The competition happened on the weekend of 30-31 October and involved playing games of 5X5 (five a side) as well as 3X3 (three a side using half the court).

Supported by Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Youth Sport and Recreation (YSR), the Yuelamu B team won the 3X3 competition, and the main team came third in the full court game.

The players also received a training session on how to umpire and gained some valuable skills to use back home.

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

The Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Youth Sport and Recreation (YSR) team held a Yuelamu Halloween disco on Saturday 23 October as part of school engagement tool.

Entry to the event was based on school attendance and the kids created spooky masks which was part of the school curriculum. There was a best mask prize awarded however all kids received a small prize for participating.

“We played the dance and freeze game which was a high light, and limbo,” said Vaughn Hampton, Team Leader - Youth and Community Safety, Yuelamu.

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%).

This weekend at Alice Springs Basketball Stadium, the Yuelamu Men’s basketball team and Engawala Men’s Basketball team will represent Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) at Southern Cup Basketball Tournament. The teams will travel to Alice Springs along with teams from all over Central Australia to compete in the two day tournament.

“It is great to see these two communities participating in the Southern Cup. We haven’t had Yuelamu representing Central Desert in a sporting competition for almost two years and I know that the men are excited to represent Central Desert, and Engawala have the opportunity to compete in the event for a second year running,” said Aaron Tannahill, Program Manager Youth, Sport and Recreation.