Cyclones had silver lining, say people of Arnhem Land as rebuilding begins
|
Version 0 of 1. Eight months after twin cyclones ravaged their Arnhem Land community of Galiwin’ku, Aboriginal residents say the storms had a silver lining. Inspecting the rebuilding effort in Galiwin’ku, the Northern Territory chief minister, Adam Giles, and members of the community said the cyclone had in fact been an “opportunity” for economic development, and the construction process was delivering training, jobs and business ventures to the Yolngu people. “Challenges often bring opportunity, and gathered by the entourage here today we’re looking at the start of a very successful story,” said Giles. More than 250 people in the remote Arnhem Land community and nearby outstations were left homeless after cyclone Lam in February, and then Nathan in March traversed the top end coastline and destroyed or damaged hundreds of homes, as well as vital infrastructure. Displaced families in Galiwin’ku lived in a hastily erected city of tents borrowed from the NSW rural fire service until they could move to demountable buildings, some after more than five months. Almost all repairs to the more than 350 homes which sustained non-structural damage have been completed. However as the cyclone season begins again in the region, construction on the promised 82 new houses has only just begun. In agreement with community leaders the NT government split the build in half, with 40 houses to be constructed by mid 2016, getting people out of temporary accommodation. The rest will be built under a slower – and as-yet untendered – process to allow for comprehensive training and up-skilling of local Yolngu people employed under the federal remote jobs and welfare program. Giles’s comments were echoed by people from the community and others involved in the recovery effort, who hoped the ventures borne of the rebuilding effort would evolve into long term economic benefits. Danny Dangadanga Garrawurra lives in the “new suburb” of Cluster Five, one section of the 30 demountable buildings. The noise and dark of the cyclones were like nothing he had ever experienced, Gurrawurra said on Thursday. His house was already old and in need of repair, and was demolished after the storms, which he said was “life changing for the community”. Gurrawurra pointed to the number of traineeships on the projects, and said: “I want to see the young ones, new trainees to be involved in this sort of job for their future.” Charles Yunupingu said the cluster housing was better than the humid tent cities but he was keen to see the build progress. “Employing young people keeps them out of the streets and mischief, which is what the Yolngu people of Galiwin’ku want to see,” said Yunupingu. “We’ve got to see the positive side, for the community.” The construction tender was split between two companies – Ngarda, and a joint venture between Delta Reef and the Gove-based Gumatj Aboriginal corporation (DRG). About one fifth of Ngarda’s workforce is Indigenous, as is more than half of DRG’s. Michael Martin, the general manager for Delta Reef, said the goal of the partnership, established for three years, was to ensure work for Yolngu people beyond the cyclone recovery effort. “We decided we would have a go at the opportunity here,” he told Guardian Australia. “We’re hoping it’s just the start and does go long term, because I hate six or nine month contracts that then stop.” Noting the entirely Indigenous team of six painters working on housing refurbishments, Martin said there were some employees who were past the point of needing training and apprenticeships. “They run their own show, it’s fantastic,” he said. “There’s lots of scope and possibilities, we just need to keep pushing for more work, more work, more work.” As well as the labour force, the aim is to keep as much of the supply chain as possible locally operated as well, Giles and representatives from Aboriginal organisations said on Monday. Currently timber is sourced from Gove, but the cement blocks are coming from Darwin until the purchase of machinery allows them to be made onsite with concrete from the Galiwin’ku batching plant, owned by the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation (Alpa). “Traditionally all the infrastructure would have to be demobilised in and demobilised out which adds costs, so one of the economic benefits of having a local supplied based in Arnhem Land is we’re going to save costs,” said Chris Hayward, Alpa’s general manager of enterprise and community services. “If we can bring our infrastructure project costs down it means we can do more projects, so it’s a real medium term benefit.” The repair cost for the public houses was budgeted at $54m and more than $90m for rebuilding homes and essential community infrastructure across Galiwin’ku, Milingimbi and Ramingining in the first year. It was not clear whether the project remained in budget as other funding streams were also pouring into the community. “We talk about $90m but there’s far more than $90m being invested,” Giles told media. “We anticipate we’ve spent well over $100m but we’re not measuring it by the financial input. We’re measuring it by the community outcome,” he said. “Our focus is not on the money. Our focus is on jobs.” Giles would not be drawn on whether that meant the project was over budget, and pointed to other recovery projects and investments in the region. “There’s a lot more to this program and in true Aboriginal affairs sense, it’s not just one line agency.” |