Engawala 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.

On Monday 21 February Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure Barnaby Joyce announced a $678m investment to seal the Outback Way, which includes the Plenty Highway to the Queensland border.

Francis Lovegrove was thrilled when he got the role as an Aboriginal Liaison Officer with the NT Police in Yuendumu, after a long process with lots of paperwork and persistence by both Francis and the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Community Development Program (CDP).

The hot conditions have proved challenging for the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) Engawala Aged Care cool room. The heat had meant the cool room refrigeration unit was working very hard to keep the temperature at the required level.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Work Health and Safety (WHS) October Safe Work Month film competition was hotly contested this year, with the dominant themes around vehicles and personal protective equipment (PPE).

At the September Council meeting the Councillors watched all the movies and deliberated over the outcome and there was a dead heat between two movies. Luckily, the Hon. Chansey Paech was in attendance for the swearing in of the new Councillors and was asked to choose the winner.

The winner as chosen by the Council and the Minister were the Community Development Program (CDP) team for their film, ‘Think Safe and Drive Safe’. Congratulations to the CDP team.