Yuendumu News

Community Development Program (CDP) participants across all the Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) sites have been reengaging with the program after the Christmas break and the men's business season.

In Yuendumu they have been making tree guards for trees purchased under the Drought Relief funding.

Photo above: Left to right: Ziggy Brown, Andrew Brumby, and Eli Egan making tree guards for trees purchased under the Drought Relief funding.

These are the premier Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) awards, now in their third running. The value of the awards has been increased as the standard has increased. The awards were formally acknowledged at the last All Staff meeting in March, where winners received a certificate, $200 voucher and a mug commemorating the value the winner is demonstrating.

Congratulations to all the winners, well done on demonstrating the values and your strong contribution to Council.

Yuendumu now has a dedicated recycling shed, with bays for seven different recycling categories.

The shed was designed and constructed by an Alice Springs business using local employees, to cater for the community’s needs and to assist with increasing recycling.

It also focusses on diverting waste from landfill, which is a National, Northern Territory and Local Government initiative. The aim is to increase the average resource recovery rate from all waste streams in Australia to 80% by 2030 (National Waste Policy Action Plan 2019).

On 12 March Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) works crew members participated in traffic control training, which they will use for their everyday road maintenance activities such as road grading, pothole patching, signage installation, etc.

The participants were Cyril Kunoth, Albert Wilson, Geoffrey Wilson and Colin French from Yuendumu and Alan Davis from Anmatjere.

The training was sponsored by Boral Asphalt and was delivered by Civil Train in Alice Springs.

Every March 8^th is International Women’s Day. Today we are celebrating with an interview with the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC), Diane Hood.

What challenges have you faced in your career as a woman? How did you overcome them?

The inherent challenges to women in our society are sexism and unconscious bias against them. It is assumed that women should act in a certain way; nurturing and caring, but at the same time when in a leadership role they are expected to be logical and decisive, which are traditionally seen as male traits. When a female executive doesn’t act the way they are expected to it is hard for them to be seen as an individual with individual strengths and weaknesses.

Yuendumu has just had a new landfill constructed at their waste management facility. It will be used to safely dispose of community waste over the next four and a half years with a capacity of 5,610m³, or just over two Olympic swimming pools.

This is the fourth new landfill constructed by Central Desert Regional Council (CDRC) this financial year and uses the same design as the Willowra and Yuelamu landfills. The design includes constructing ‘benches’ around the sides, giving it a stadium look. This reduces the likelihood of the walls collapsing, making it safer for the field staff when working in the pit.