Roper Gulf Regional Council PO Box 1321 Katherine NT 0851 Phone: 08 8972 9000 Fax: 08 8971 2607

CONTENTS

Promises of the Dry Edition.

Lets be friends! Do you want to be up to date with the latest Council news, stories and photos? Like us on the Roper Gulf Regional

Council’s Facebook page for a wealth of Council information.

Staff Profile …. Pg 4

“Jilk” Kids follow in the footsteps ….PG 5

Binjari Four aim for ...PG 5

Out & About …..PG 6-7

A Sign of things to come….. PG 8

And now for the weather… PG 9

RGRC buys prime location ...PG 9

Good Ideas into Action ….PG 10

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Over 55 residents arrived at the Jilkminggan Community Meeting to dis-cuss the RGRC 2016/2017 town priorities. A great turn out!

 

Message from the Mayor

Tony Jack

I am excited to announce that we have purchased the old landmark site in Crawford Street Katherine for future development as a new headquarters. Our existing headquarters are at capacity and offer little opportunity for expansion. This purchase helps secure our place in Katherine as a major employer in the region. We will now start to carefully look at our opportunities for the site and begin a design process. It is starting to feel like the dry is just around the corner and this is a time of intensive work for Council services as we make use of the milder weather and better access to complete projects for our 2015/2016 planning year. We have started our planning for the next year and are calling for input and submissions from residents on the projects and improvements they see as priorities in their community and towns. These will guide our planning processes.

You can share your ideas and thoughts directly with your Ward Councillors, Local Authority members, or Council Managers. You can also speak/ write or email Council’s Governance Unit with your ideas. Your input is important to us but we need all ideas, comments and feedback by the end of April. The end of the wet will see the browning off of the growth from the wet and already we are starting to see the spear grass starting to brown and bend in some places. There is a heap of slashing and burning ahead around our communities to help reduce fire risk. You can help by ensuring the grass around your place is kept in order. We had a huge Agenda for our recent Ordinary Council Meeting held in beautiful Barunga. Lots of ideas were discussed and positive decisions made. If you want to know more you can find the minutes of the meeting on our website in the next week. Many thanks to Deputy Mayor Macfarlane for chairing the second day of the meeting as I had to go to Canberra for an Australian Local Government Association meeting. While I was in Barunga I had a look around and every thing was clean and green, well done Rex and the Muns team. We are looking forward to our next Ordinary Council meeting, which is in Ngukurr on the 15th May. Local community members and residents are welcome to attend. I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter. I spent mine at King Ash Bay, near Borroloola, fishing in the annual Fishing Competition. Great fun and a very well organised event. Put it in your calendar for next year or come out now as it seems the Barra are biting on what might be the last of the runoff.

Employee of the Month Employees of the Month are selected for their dedication and hard work within Roper Gulf Regional Council.

- March - Head Quarters - Keerthi Kumarawadu

Barunga - Max AhFat Beswick - Tracey Wallace

Borroloola - Jerry Anderson Bulman - Ewen Martin

Eva Valley - Mark Runyu Jilkminggan - Sophia Walla

Mataranka - Margaret Minnett Ngukurr - Mitchell Hall

Numbulwar - Janette Murrungun

Congratulations to all the

winners!

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Message from the CEO

Hi Everyone, March has come and gone and on a weather front so has the wet season with very little rainfall experienced in the region. From a servicing point of view this amounts to minimal disruptions with increased access

to all communities and following the end of year break, services have been at full steam ahead earlier than usual. This time of year management is in full gear with the review of all budgets and the first organisational-wide budget in draft form will be presented to the Roper Gulf Finance Committee in April for their consideration. From hereon the full Council then has up to 3 months, which includes a 21 day public consultation period, to finalise and adopt the budget in readiness for the New Year. As the Mayor mentioned, Council conducted its

Ordinary Council Meeting in Barunga Community late in March and it was great for the elected members to have a good look at this Community which is looking very well and hear about local issues from the local Councillors. The Mayor and I met with the local Traditional Owner group who spoke about some anti-social issues which includes alcohol related violence occurring at times and have requested our assistance to help address these issues. Roaming wild buffaloes within our Communities, mainly during the dry season, are still a safety concern for places like Barunga and we will continue our efforts in meeting with the Traditional Owners to address this problem. We are also awaiting the outcome of an Aboriginal Benefit Account (ABA) grant funding application which would include constructing a stock exclusion perimeter fence around Barunga. If this grant is approved this type of fence should hopefully deter buffaloes from entering the Community. Till next time, stay safe,

Waterlilies at Barunga

 

Staff Profile

  

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Garry Richards: Project Manager

Reports to: Sharon Hillen,

Director of Council Services and Infrastructure

Chardon Street Office

Here are the faces of our super star Finance Team, should you ever want to put a name to a face. From Left to Right: Bala Donepudi, Binayak Adhikari, Munish Singla , Lokesh Anand, Nikish Jamookeech, Rajni Kalra, Hilary Sinfield, Raju Koirala. Missing on the day is Elivis Soundron.

Finance Team!

Garry has had his hand in some of the biggest construc-tion projects in Australia over the last 40 years and is now managing a range of infra-structure projects in Roper Gulf Regional towns. Garry started work as a car-penter on the Thompson River Dam and worked on the West-gate Bridge in Victoria. He was just off site when a pier collapsed killing 30 men, the biggest industrial disaster in Australian history. “I certainly learnt about safety the hard way, we had a very poor attitude then. The Thompson Tunnel which is one of the longest and sup-posedly safest tunnels ever built in Australia bragged that it had the lowest death rate of any previous tunnel at one for every kilometre!” (The tunnel is 19 kilometres long).

Garry then went on to work on high rise, large industrial pro-jects, domestic housing, and shopping centres and ran his own construction company. Garry’s life then went through an unexpected change and a new life working on industrial and mining projects. He worked on a $300 million pow-er station in Western Australia and in Queensland, Fiji and the Northern Territory. Garry was the site manager at the Darwin Entertainment Centre. Much of this work was fly in fly out and involved long periods away from home. When he became a father he decided to find a job where he was at home for his daughter and he came to work for Roper Gulf. “I like a challenge and even though the scale is totally dif-ferent, it is just as challenging

working on our smaller pro-jects. I especially appreciate working with our local work-forces who are often unskilled. We are steadily upskilling them and I enjoy this mentor-ing role. I am seeing people learning and achieving in this job and this brings real com-munity benefits. Most of my work is about plan-ning, permits, tendering and constantly chasing up. I really enjoy my work and it is offer-ing me the challenge I really like.” Garry is clearly very self con-tained and it doesn’t surprise that earlier in life he sailed sin-gle handed around the world in his own yacht. Does he still sail? “Not at the moment I will wait for my daughter to get older before we start”.

 

“Jilk” kids follow in the footsteps of Michael Long

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Four women from the Community Development Program at Binjari recently attended the Indigenous Employment Program information session at the Katherine Government Centre. The Indigenous Employment Program (IEP) is a pre-employment program specifically designed to attract Indigenous jobseekers who want to enter or return to work and have an opportunity to start a career in the Northern Territory Public Sector (NTPS) . The program aims to equip trainees with foundation skills relevant to entry level positions and includes a Certificate 2 in Business. This is complemented by work readiness development and work-based learning. Upon completion, participants will receive an employment offer within the NTPS. 25 people attended the session, 10 will be successful in gaining a spot in this programme.

All four of our group were successful in gaining an interview and they all did a very good job. So well done and good luck to our four Binjari women: Stella Raymond, Cinetta Ru-Unga, Sylvia Birdum, Aganita Charlie RGRC manages the Community Development Program at Binjari. Kelly Mumme - CDP Senior Mentor RGRC At the time of publishing we still do not know if any of the Binjari Women have been selected but everyone who made the effort and participated are winners to us. We’ll keep you updated!

A group of young footy heroes from Jilkminggan went to Darwin in mid February to participate in the Michael Long Cup. The kids were picked not only for their talent but also because of their very good school attendance. Staying at the Michael Long Centre they participated in four Aussie Rules Football games against teams from other remote areas of the Northern Territory and a team from the Darwin league. The kids had a very short time to get to know each other and play as a team but met this challenge and by the end of the competition had clicked and played a couple of very close games with teams that play together weekly. During the three days the team also learnt about nutrition, teamwork and how to live a healthy life. They also learnt about respect for others and for themselves. The Jilk kids were all really excited when Cr Annabelle Daylight

turned up to support the kids. The trip was a great experience for the Jilkminggan kids and has given them something to aim for next year as the competition is run annually. I would also like to thank Holly Gosden and Richard Tambling from NTAFL for their great efforts and support. Juan Hernandez: Sport and Recreation Development Officer RGRC  

Binjari Four aim for a public service career

 

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE MONTH

Out & About

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Clean Up Australia Day was a big success in some of our Communities. BELOW: Some of the clean up efforts in Borroloola, where they collected an estimated 33,600 litres of rubbish!

Guess: What road is this ?

 

 

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Out & About RIGHT: The RGRC ‘Solutions’ team took 2nd Place at the LG Profession-al Management Challenge 2016.

Left to Right: Vir-ginya Boon, Greg Arnott, Sarah Myles, Ansuya Sobha, Annalisa Bowden, Amanda H a i g h , M a r c Garder

Ngukurr CDP team relaxing after a hard days work at the Aged Care Centre.

 

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The first road signs announcing works on the new bridges to cross the Roper and Wilton Rivers on the Roper Highway have been erected and work is expected to begin in April 2016, with a planned completion date in October 2017.

The new bridges will greatly reduce road closures during regular wet season flooding at the low level crossings that provide essential links between Ngukurr, Numbulwar and Urapunga and the Stuart Highway. The project is budgeted at $40 million and is jointly funded by the Northern Territory and Australian Governments.

Please take extra care when driving in the works area and follow all traffic management direction and signage. Road conditions will change and there will be workers and machinery operating in the area for the next 18 months.

Sign of things to come

 

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And now for the weather The topic of the moment is the long hot dry “wet”, the driest February on record also the hottest. The recent monsoon bought less than it promised. This follows a strong El Niño that has left the east coast of Australia much drier than normal and continuing drought in some parts of Queensland and NSW. In an El Nino, cyclones on Australia’s East coast are less likely and so far none have crossed the coast this season. At the same time El Nino increases cyclone activity in the central Pacific and Fiji was recently badly impacted by Cyclone Winston, one of the strongest in recorded history. We cannot afford to be complacent and should continue to ensure our homes and towns are prepared for bad weather. Continuing preparation will not stop a cyclone but will

reduce the impact and make recovery easier. For more information on how to be prepared for emergencies speak with your local Council Office or NT Emergency Services who will have a range of information or follow this link: www.pfes.nt.gov.au Unusually warm surface water temperatures in Northern Australian waters is putting a lot of moisture into the air and this with the next Maddern Julian Oscillation (MJO), which brings low pressure, high humidity and rain east from Africa is expected in early April. When a MJO is over Australia there is an increased probability of monsoonal weather including cyclones. Yet another year of below average rain is also starting to impact on aquifers and bores.

The Mayor of Roper Gulf Regional Council, Mr Tony Jack has announced that the Council has purchased the high profile site on the corner of Chardon and Crawford Street in Katherine. The 1.2 hectare site formerly occupied by Landmark will be redeveloped as a new permanent administrative Headquarters for the Regional Council. “We are really excited with the purchase of this high visibility site. It gives us the room to grow and to properly accommodate our staff based here in Katherine”, the Mayor said. “Roper Gulf Regional Council is an important employer in the region, currently employing over 70 staff in the Katherine Town area.

The range and scale of our services has grown substantially since the Council moved into the Nyirranggulung Council’s old building after the amalgamation in 2008. We recognised an urgent need to improve the quality of accommodation for staff in our Crawford Street office which has reached capacity and has limited room to meet our future staff needs. We have been looking for a great location like this for sometime.” We have already started to use the site for some equipment storage and will now start planning on how we can make the best use of the site and what refitting and redesign will be needed.

Roper Gulf buys prime location site in Katherine

 

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It is perhaps the best club in the world to join and after eight years in Australia and nearly four in Katherine Ansuya Sobha has became an Australian Citizen at a ceremony held in Katherine at the end of February. “I am so proud… it is one of the most special days of my life”, Ansuya said excitedly.

Ansuya comes from the tiny island nation of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. She studied International Business in Perth before coming to Katherine to work with Roper Gulf Regional Council. She is currently our Contracts and Projects Officer—Assets.

Another Roper Gulf Staff Member becomes a Citizen

Good ideas into action—Tell us what you think Roper Gulf Regional Council wants to know what your priorities are for development of your town.

What do you think is needed to help grow your town in the coming year?

What is important to you?

This can include improvements in infrastructure and social and cultural needs.

Your say will help shape the development of the 2016/ 2017 Regional Plan which sets Council’s plans and actions for the coming year in all towns across the Region. Not everything can be done but your experience as a town resident is valued. By telling Council what should have priority your local knowledge can help lead our planning and make it more reflective of local identified need.

Submissions and ideas can be passed on

through Local Authority members, through your local Council Service Manager or contact the Governance team on PH: 8944 7005 e: Roper.Governance@ropergulf.nt.gov.au, by the end of April.

Last year’s Town Priorities are in the 2015/2016 Regional Plan on the Roper Gulf Website.

 

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Upcoming Meetings of Council and Local Authorities

Mayor Tony Jack Phone: 0428 793 132 tony.jack@ropergulf.nt.gov.au Deputy Mayor Judy MacFarlane Phone: 0437 918 115 judy.macfarlane@ropergulf.nt.gov.au

Chief Executive Officer Michael Berto Phone: 0427 799 621 michael.berto@ropergulf.nt.gov.au Reception Phone: (08) 8972 9000 Fax: (08) 8971 2607 info@ropergulf.nt.gov.au

Contact Us

Job Opportunities For current employment opportunities go to www.ropergulf.nt.gov.au or email: recruitment@ropergulf.nt.gov.au

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Do you have a story to tell or a photograph to share? Roper Gulf Regional Council would like to showcase your stories and photo-graphs from our region. Residents and RGRC staff are invited to submit their ar-ticles and original photos to be considered for an upcoming edition of the RGRC Newsletter, RGRC Facebook Page and/or RGRC Website. Please submit your material to: roper.governance@ropergulf.nt.gov.au or 08 8972 9000

Date Time Meeting Location

1 Apr 9.00am Larrrimah Community Meeting Larrimah Park

1 Apr 12.00pm Daly Waters Community Meeting Daly Waters Pub

5 Apr 5.30pm Mataranka Local Authority Meeting Mataranka Community Hall

6 Apr 10.30am Ngukurr Local Authority Meeting Ngukurr Child Care Centre

7 Apr 10.00am Boroloola Local Authority Meeting Boroloola SDC

28 Apr 8.30am Finance Committee Meeting RGRC Headquarters

3 May 10.00am Jilkminggan Local Authority Meeting Jilkminggan SDC

Please Note: Local Authority Meetings are subject to change.

For the most up to date information please see: www.ropergulf.nt.gov.au