NT

The three levels of government will be meeting in Tennant Creek next week to acknowledge the key achievements to date of the Barkly Regional Deal and discuss future priorities ... The Barkly Regional Deal is the first Regional Deal in Australia - a 10-year $78.4 million commitment between the Australian and Northern Territory governments and the Barkly Regional Council. However Barkly MLA Steve Edgington said the NT Government was nowhere near meeting its commitment to the 28 economic, social and cultural initiatives to be implemented across the region over the first three years of the deal.

As a part of the School Holiday Program, local band The Last Resort has been performing series of gigs at different Town Camps each evening. Intended to help keep the kids off the streets, the gigs have been well attended by families and supported by Elders and community organisations.

Indian-born Abir moved to the Northern Territory with his family at the age of two. His parents have always supported his education but moving to Victoria to further his studies was an expensive dream not readily available. Abir was successful in his application for financial support and received the generous Mary Vernon – Country Education Foundation (CEF) Scholarship of $21,000 over three years ... Abir says, “The people you surround yourself with is your community. It can be your friendship group, your school peers and teachers or your neighbours. And when good things happen to people in your community, it rubs off on everyone.”

Catherine Grimley. You may see a few teal ribbons being worn during April, and the reason for that is Sexual Assault Awareness month, now in its 20th year, and just as topical as it has ever been. Tennant Creek Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) kicked the month off at the Hospital with a BBQ, cake and conversations that will hopefully carry on beyond this month.

Catherine Grimley. It's been just over two months since the concerned citizens and elders started sitting up at BP of a night, giving up their time and sleep to try and make a difference in the anti social behavior currently afflicting our town. The group now has a name – Jurnkkurakurr Volunteers – but the biggest thing the group needs is more people who are prepared to give up some of their time to help bolster numbers and allow those who have been turning up night after night to make some difference in our damaged town.

Marnie Sutton received the Remote Worker for Communities award in the female category of the 2021 National Indigenous and Alcohol Conference recently. The award recognises the unique challenges facing workers in remote locations and making an important commitment to contributing to reducing the harmful effects of drug and alcohol use among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people over at least five years.

Pam Dillon. Students from a remote Barkly school have been developing their swimming and water safety skills during a fun-filled visit to Tennant Creek. Seventeen students from Canteen Creek School hit the pool for several days of aquatic instruction under the watchful eyes of Swimming NT Pathways Manager Thomas Noblett and Barkly Sports Education Coordinator Pam Dillon.

The meeting started with a community conversation with attendees forming groups afterwards to brainstorm ideas which were collected and collated to be presented at another meeting to be held in the coming weeks. Speakers included Barkly MLA Steve Edgington, The Mob Aboriginal Corporation’s Josephine Bethel, local business owner Steve Baldwin and Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation’s Dr Geoff Evans. The meeting was a civilised affair with residents and interested stakeholders focused simply on solutions.

A Tasmanian athletics icon is helping to grow a love of sport among Barkly school students. Jocelyn (Millar) Cubit, an Upper Primary Teacher at Epenarra School, south-east of Tennant Creek, boasts an impressive athletics resume, having represented Australia at three successive Commonwealth Games ... Still the holder of several Tasmanian athletics records, Jo is now devoted to inspiring remote school students.

Jessie Hayward is thrilled with her new home. She is the first tenant to move into one of ten brand new homes being built in Tennant Creek. GK Builders and Asbuild were awarded NT Government tenders to construct six three-bedroom homes and four four-bed-room homes across town camps including Village, Marla Marla, Munji Marla, Tingkarli, Karguru and Mulga.

The town is divided over the NT Government’s new measures to tackle youth crime which will see young people who breach bail locked up. The automatic revocation of bail will apply to young people who reoffend while on bail, breach curfew or fail to attend court, for example. Police will have extended powers to use electronic monitoring on young people and powers to breath test youth who are behind the wheel of a car.

Dr Samantha Disbray. The project Ankkinyi Apparr, Ankkinyi Mangurr brings together old stories, language and art.

Barkly MLA Steve Edgington met with the team from Sun Cable this week – the company which has signed a milestone agreement to advance the $22 billion Australia-AASEAN Power Link). Mr Edgington said the project will see up to $8 billion invested in the Barkly which will host the largest solar farm and renewable energy system in the world.

“The damage to residents is they don’t feel safe in their own homes and there’s nothing the police can do because the courts just let them go" ... "We have had many break-ins and a lot of public assets damaged and it just goes on and on. Just months ago there was about $80,000 of damage to the Bowls Club and now it’s not available for public use and we can’t afford to fix it. We have spent tens of thousands of dollars fortifying buildings to keep the vandals out. They are not just stealing but destroying everything – it’s ridiculous”: local resident and Barkly Regional Council CEO, Steve Moore.

Roper Gulf Regional Council would like to thank everyone who was involved in the emergency evacuation of the Jilkminggan community on Thursday 25 February 2021. The decision was made by the Local Emergency Committee to evacuate 211 people from Jilkminggan as flood waters continued to rise and surround the community.