Community members from the Tjuwanpa Outstations, near Ntaria (Hermannsburg) in the Northern Territory, have welcomed Australian Government funding for essential service deliveries to homelands and outstations over the next ten years, as part of the Australian Government’s Stronger Futures initiative.

Around 300 Western Arrarnta people call the outstations home, and rely on the Tjuwanpa Resource Centre for the delivery of maintenance works and the repair of power, water and housing assets.

The Tjuwanpa Resource Centre, located approximately 130 kilometres west of Alice Springs, currently services 37 outstations spread across 4,500 square kilometres of Aboriginal Land Trust lands in the Northern Territory.

Chairman of the Tjuwanpa Resource Centre, Conrad Ratara, is enthusiastically welcoming the funding and is looking forward to seeing the Resource Centre grow and involve more young people.

“It’s good to see the Tjuwanpa grow and I like to see that Stronger Futures is giving our people 10 years funding and it is good to see the young people work their land,” Conrad said.

Under the Stronger Futures initiative, the Australian Government will provide $221 million over ten years to supply outstations and homelands with access to power, water and sewerage, and road maintenance, and support garbage collection, dog control programs and operational costs for organisations that provide municipal and essential services.

The communities see the ten year funding as a great opportunity to build up the local workforce and build capacity for future business in this area.

“We’ve got 30 young fellas working here at the Centre and about 25 woman and young girls. Then we can get some more young people involved to work when we get the funding for the outstations, I would really like to see that,” Conrad said.

Speakers:

• Conrad Ratara, Chairman of the Tjuwanpa Resource Centre.
• Sonya Braydon, Board member, Tjuwanpa Resource Centre.