West Arnhem Regional Council staff from Gunbalanya has now completed the Remote Trauma Course delivered by CareFlight. 

Thirteen team members attended this fantastic workshop and learned how to respond to trauma incidents, walking away with confidence and the skills needed to step in and help someone who is critically injured. Jack Pahi, Team Leader Works, said this training opportunity was really good. 

“The trainers took a good time to explain things, giving us clear instructors about how to do things in an emergency and showing us how things are done”.

West Arnhem Regional Council's (WARC) works crews continue to benefit from great training activities. This time, seven team members participated in Plant and Machinery training in Jabiru, learning how to safely operate excavators and skid steer loaders.  This initiative is supported by the NT Government with the purpose of providing relevant training to remote workforce.  WARC has been fortunate to secure these initial seven enrolments and has submitted an expression of interest to bring this opportunity to each of our communities. 
Unchalee Folkers, Workforce Development Officer from NTG, explains that training opportunities like this one will not only benefit the participants to upskill and undertake a wider range of construction tasks, but also help the communities across the region. “By having an upskilled workforce, WARC will be able to develop and deliver public construction projects with efficiency and maintain public facilities and spaces in greater condition”. 

Misman Kris, Senior Works Officer in Warruwi, has attended this program and says this helps him to “gain more confidence to operate the equipment and to share his knowledge with his team when he returns to community”. 

Young people in Jabiru had the opportunity to share important messages and express themselves through lyrics following the launch of their very own song and music video ‘Lean on me’.

The music video was the culmination of the Jabiru Safe and Healthy Youth Project which the young people have been undertaking throughout Term 1, with support from Red Lily and West Arnhem Regional Council.
The Jabiru Safe and Healthy Youth Project was a 12 week program focusing on alcohol and other drugs education and learning.
During this time, young people aged 10 to 17 years were engaged through program activities including: 

• Awareness presentations from the AOD team
• Brainstorming positive messages at the YSR chill space
• Educational resources about alcohol awareness and drug harm

The program empowered Kakadu’s young people by creating and spreading positive messages about healthy living and wellbeing through the creation of art and visual mediums, including posters, banners, storytelling and music for a video.
At the end, the young people worked with Wayne from SoundED workshopping different sounds, beats and their own lyrics to a song and the location of a video clip. They called themselves the ‘Barramundi Beats’.

Wayne was fantastic, and was really encouraging the young people to make the music video their own. 
Young people were very engaged and enthusiastic and loved the singing and learning about making songs.
View the video here: 
 

This program was proudly funded by the Northern Territory Government. 

PUBLIC NOTICE - UPGRADES TO TOWNSHIP INFRASTRUCTURE
 

West Arnhem Regional Council wishes to advise the Jabiru community there will be ongoing works and upgrades to township infrastructure, including water and roads, over the next few months.

These upgrades are critical to improve future service delivery in Jabiru.

We wish to thank you for your patience and understanding while these important works within the township are carried out.

DATED: 12 April 2023

It’s been a strong start for the school year at Maningrida College with attendance and enrolments on the rise.

At the beginning of 2023, enrolments were sitting at a respectable 494, but by the end of Week 4 there was an increase to 578 enrolled students.

“But even more pleasing is the fact that 59 of these students have attended 90-100% of school days since Week 2,” said Principal Petrina Hayward.

Ms Hayward has attributed the attendance rise to a range of family events and activities supported by the school that have focussed on the school and the students.

“Friday mornings are dedicated to pancake breakfasts and the school invites students and their families, community members and organisations to join them for a yummy pancake and fruit salad breakfast,” she said.

In Week 3 Maningrida College held its inaugural Family Picnic Day, which brought students, families and school staff together to enjoy Buffalo Spaghetti Bolognese and listen to live music from a local community band.

“These sorts of events help our students concentrate on their school life and how to be good school citizens,” Ms Hayward said. 

There have been lots of activities since the start of the school year that have been specially designed to keep student’s interest high, including special assemblies to acknowledge top attending students, dance competitions, school family photos and rather different Footy Colours Day where the students caught up with the Sydney Swans over Zoom.

“Meeting the Swans was a big hit and we are now going to have to think outside the box to come up with something special next term,” Ms Hayward said.

Another excursion that was very popular was when the Year 5 and 6 students went to the BAC nursery in Maningrida to learn about the properties and distinctions of bush tucker – like the fact that it only grows in wet season because of how much water each plant requires to grow.

The kids drew pictures of the different types of bush foods, which will help them to identify them when they are on country engaging in the Learning on Country program.

“Our attendance rates are still high even with Term 1 coming to a close in two weeks, and I want to congratulate our students, their families and the Remote School Attendance Strategy Team for putting education first,” Ms Hayward said.

The Northern Territory Electoral Commission officially declared the result for the Arafura by-election on Monday, 20 March with Manuel Brown being duly elected.  West Arnhem Regional Council (WARC) congratulates the new Member for Arafura who was sworn into Parliament on Tuesday, 21 March and looks forward to working together towards improving health, housing, education and infrastructure in West Arnhem Land and deliver on the promises that have been made.

Manuel Brown received a total of 1,868 first preference votes. As the margin between Mr Brown and the next candidate, Leslie Tungatalum, is over 1,000 votes, this by-election can be declared early. The remaining 72 postal and 272 declaration votes yet to be admitted, will not affect the outcome.