february ngukurr celebrates with a pool party...

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

CONTENTS

Ngukurr Celebrates with a Pool Party

Australia Day fun in the pool at Ngukurr. A great day was had by all participants at the Australia Day celebrations. Activities included; a

delicious BBQ, Footy matches and a Corroboree.

Signs of the Times ….PG 3

Australia Day Round up …..PG 4

Good Ideas into Action …..PG 5

Next Generation of Trucks...PG 8

Meeting the faces ….PG 9

The Parks at Ngukurr ...PG 10

RGRC to cont. in RSAS... PG 10

The Post must go through .PG 11

Feb

ruary

Message from the Mayor

Message from the CEO

Tony Jack

2016 is an election year and we will see increasing activity from politicians. At the recent Local Government Association of the NT Executive Meeting we had both Chief Minister Giles and Minister for Local Government Minister Bess Price attend. Right now our Council is continuing discussion with Government around the future of our swimming pools and are hopeful that a suitable arrangement will be found thanks to the help of our Government “Community Champion” in Borroloola. The discussion at LGANT indicated there are some common issues around the cost of swimming pool operations. New solutions and approaches are needed to maintain these important community assets. This month I visited our new Chardon Street Workshops. It is an impressive new asset for Council. Initial outlay of capital in building will be balanced by gaining an appreciating asset that provides a safe and suitable facility for our staff and saving of leasing costs. These are

investments in the ongoing operation of Council which is an important employer and service provider in the region. Another hot topic at the LGANT meeting was waste management. As landfill sites disappear there is increasing demand for better and safer recycling. This is something that Roper Gulf have begun working on. The arrival of three new compactor trucks and new guidelines for abandoned vehicles will make our waste removal more efficient. This is however just part of an overall waste management strategy. No longer can we just dig holes and set fire to our rubbish. This could be another dry year. The wet season rains are below average and already the spear grass is starting to seed and go brown. I hope we get a good top up soon.

Hi Everyone, Well, February has come and gone and it seems like yesterday that we saw the new year in. Time sure seems like it is speeding up. And what is going on with our wet season? February may well be high in the record

books for low rainfalls I think however we know this isn’t the end of it yet and there will be more rain to come. We are now in full swing with our work and the dry wet season has certainly given many of us good opportunity to get a lot more done in Communities and this is a good thing. In Numbulwar they have received some well deserved funds to develop their Hip

Hop project so we are all looking forward to seeing what our young ones create. I’m sure they are out to impress us all and I wish them all the best. In Mataranka, they are about to commence the development of their skate park and this will be done by the Municipal Team and CDP Participants. I am looking forward to seeing the finished project and I’m sure it will get well used by

the Community. Ngukurr Community celebrated the opening of their Pool Park whilst they had some government dignitaries in the Community. This is a great example of how the Local Authority have put their funds to great use for all to enjoy. Till next time, stay safe.

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

- February - Head Quarters - Felomeno (June) Damian

Barunga - Patricia Lee Beswick - Tyronna Manyita

Borroloola - Kirsten Anderson Bulman - Verona Dalywater Eva Valley - Janelle Hood

Jilkminggan - Gerald Sambo Mataranka - Steve Besic

Ngukurr - Jeston Murrungun Numbulwar - Christine Smith

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

People travelling in the Roper Gulf Region will soon see new welcome signs in the Region’s towns and communities following approval by Roper Gulf Regional Council during the January Ordinary Council Meeting. The bright, new signs will welcome people, identify places of importance and list key contact phone numbers in each of the Region’s towns. They will also raise the profile of the whole region and provide uniform and easily

identifiable signs that will replace old town signs. “This is an important part of our organisational branding, raising our profile for visitors and locals alike,” said Mayor Tony Jack. “Roper Gulf Region is a vibrant place, bigger than some European Countries. Our towns are very dispersed and each very different. These new informative signs are practical, attractive and will help define our unique Region”.

The new signs are funded by the NT Government’s “Shire to Regional” funding program.

Signs of the Times

Roper Gulf Regional Council has announced the successful tenderer for the Cleaning and Ground Maintenance Contract for Council’s three Katherine facilities, is Easy Clean Services Katherine. The 24 month contract commences on the 29 February and is worth $217,484.00 over the con-tract period.

New Cleaning and Grounds Maintenance Tender Awarded

Staff Movements

Janelle Iszlaub who has been act-ing in the CDP Manager’s role has been appointed to the permanent position.

Marion Smith who has been acting In the role of Director of Community Services will be taking up the posi-tion of CEO for the Barkley Regional Council in April.

Australia Day is a big event on the calendar of most of our remote Roper Gulf Regional towns. Each town and community in the Roper Gulf region celebrates in it’s own unique and special way. This year a range of activities were held including sporting events both of the serious type like football and basketball and the more fun variety such as thong throwing and some traditional activities such as dancing and spear throwing. Of course no Australia Day would be complete without a great BBQ and other good food. Australia Day is also a day to celebrate outstanding local citizens with special awards acknowledging their achievements and community service. The success of Australia Day activities comes as a result of the combined effort of local committees, individuals, Council Officers and of course participants. For full listing of Australia Day award recipients see the Roper Gulf Website.

http://ropergulf.nt.gov.au/

Australia Day Roundup

Australia Day racing 2016 in Ngukurr

Flag Raising Ceremony in Numbulwar

Like random post modern metal sculptures, abandoned and wrecked cars can be found littered across the Territory. Left where they died, sometimes burnt out, some times on their roofs. Some just left on town blocks in outwardly good condition. Some locations have so many wrecks it looks like a set from a Mad Max movie. Roper Gulf has at least 500 abandoned vehicles and possibly many more uncounted vehicles dumped in the bush. Roper Gulf Regional Council recently passed an Abandoned Vehicle Policy to guide how Council deals with these eye sores and health and safety risks. Council will now remove any vehicle, caravan or trailer found on any road or land controlled by Council which appears to be discarded or abandoned. Removed vehicles can be sold or disposed of after appropriate attempts have been made to locate the owner.

A fee of $500 will be charged to release a vehicle from Council care. This policy does not apply to vehicles on private property. Unwanted vehicles should be left at Council Waste Management Facilities and landfills. There is no fee for private use of Council waste management facilities and landfills. Fees apply for commercial dumping Council is currently negotiating to have these abandoned vehicles crushed and removed for metal recycling when they can not be sold. The substantial fall in the world scrap iron market has currently made this uneconomical especially if transport is also included but it is expected this will pick up again. It is still much better for safety and health in our communities to concentrate these unwanted vehicles at waste management facilities, off our roads and out of our beautiful bush.

New Abandoned Vehicle Policy

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 guide 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 or through your local Council Service Manager. These need to in by the end of April. Last year’s Town Priorities are in the 2015/2016 RGRC Regional Plan on the Roper Gulf Website.

RGRC continues to clean up with the purchase of three new state of the art waste compactor trucks. The new Isuzu FRS 700 trucks being built in South Australia for a delivery date of mid May will have 12 cubic metres compactor capacity, much larger than the current fleet. The new trucks will be used in Borroloola, Ngukurr and Numbulwar with existing trucks either reallocated to some of the smaller towns or auctioned depending on their condition. The three new trucks cost a total of $660,000 of which the Northern Territory Government

contributed $120,000. RGRC removes over 7500 cubic metres of domestic waste annually from its nine towns. Rubbish is picked up weekly and in some towns twice weekly. The new trucks will provide more efficient, cost effective and safer domestic waste removal than the current fleet. Regular and ongoing waste removal helps maintain a healthy environment and limits the amount of loose litter that can come from upended and over flowing bins. Mayor Tony Jack was pleased with the announcement of the

new trucks, “The first step in keeping our towns clean and healthy is to get people to concentrate their waste in bins and not leave it lying around. It is then up to us to get it to a central landfill. These new compactors will be more efficient, reduce operational costs and provide a safer work place for our staff. “Rubbish bins should be stored securely where they cannot be knocked over by animals and weather and they should not be allowed to overflow. Together we can keep our communities tidy and healthy.” Mayor Jack said

The purchase of trucks is also the first time that RGRC has used Local Buy Pty Ltd, an Australia wide Local Government business owned by the Local Government Association of Queensland. This broadens the pool of tenderers, aggregates the purchasing power of Local Government and reduces the amount of time council officers have to spend in finding suitable providers and seeking tenders and quotes.

Next generation of waste compactor trucks are on their way

New Aussie recruits Australia Day 2016 was a big day for Roper Gulf Regional Council employees Rashmi Sharma and Binayak Adhikari. They with nine other people became Australian Citizens at a special ceremony held in Katherine. Rashmi and Binayak both came to Australia from Nepal.

Rashmi has been living in Australia for four years and Binayak has lived here for 13 years. Binayak’s wife Sangita and Rashmi’s husband NIschal and son Archit also became Australian Citizens on the day. Rashmi works at Roper Gulf Regional Council in the Governance branch and Binayak is in Finance.

January’s newsletter reported on how RGRC communications are about to do a digital great leap forward in speed and data capacity by linking into recently upgraded Telstra networks. Faster and more reliable data transfer between very remote service centres and Katherine offices will also allow for video conferencing, a technology for two way, real time visual/ audio linking between participants over long distances. This has not previously been available due to the speed of the old network. Instead of having to travel large distances for a short meeting it will soon be done online. There is a clear saving in time and resources and meetings can now include a broader range of participants. Alex MacPherson, Roper Gulf’s IT officer says that Roper Gulf has invested in

new videoconferencing equipment in preparation. “We have purchased three Microsoft round table units at a cost of around $6800 each and they are ready to go as soon as the network is fully connected. It is like a business version of Skype technology and can be linked into by anyone with an outlook profile on a connected computer using Microsoft Lync. This technology is already widely used in remote health with considerable cost effectiveness. This could change the game for meetings, interviews and training”. The system allows 360 degree coverage around a table through six cameras and responds to voice activation to recognise individual participants. The camera’s point of view is with the person speaking. This

is then instantaneously transmitted. Each table can seat up to six people. So later this year instead of flying or taking a day out to travel to a short but important meeting, you can just go to your local office or workstation and log in at the arranged time. That easy. Just bring your own coffee and bikkies. Funding for the first three videoconferencing tables came from NT Government’s Local Authorities Establishment Fund.

Meeting the faces at the end of the phone

Roper Gulf’s Victoria Highway offices have had a plague of snakes recently. The office is located just up from the Katherine River and there has been minor flooding which has probably pushed the snakes to higher ground and around the buildings. We are not sure who was more frightened of whom when this one slivered for a drain in the toilet and then got firmly stuck. Our staff member bolted the other way, even more in need of a toilet break. The small python was eventually released by Reidy the snake catcher. Both parties lived happily ever after. Snakes are often seen this

time of the year. If you find one, chances are it will not be dangerous, so leave it alone or get a professional to remove it safely. Just consider yourself lucky to see a snake! Snakes are largely nocturnal so wear appropriate footwear and long trousers after dark and check unused equipment, rooms and storage areas before entering.

Movement in the Snake Pit

Mayor Jack and his new Grandchild at Robinson River

ABOVE: Proud recipient of the Numbulwar Citizen of the Year Roland Nundhirribala

LEFT: Proud recipient of the Borroloola Citizen of the Year , Raymond Mawson, accepts his Award from Minister John Elferink MLA

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE MONTH

Guess which iconic Roper Gulf Region river this is?

Out & About

Out & About

Mabunji & Indi Kindi Playgroup at the park in Borroloola

Storm Clouds over the Roper Region

Pool activities on Australia Day at the Bor-roloola Aquatic Centre

Virginya Boon, Jo Nicol, Councillor Kathy-Anne Numamurdirdi and Deputy Mayor Judy MacFarlane attended the ALGWA Workshop in Katherine In February.

This wet season, to give the best chance of successfully establishing the next generation of shade and traditional harvest trees, local RGRC staff and CDP participants have continued planting hundreds of bush food and medicinal trees along the new walking paths that wind through the green heart of the town of Ngukurr. Ngukurr is a vibrant growing town of over a 1000 people on the banks of the magnificent Roper River and the community, particularly the young and energetic use the town’s parks and gardens every evening. The pool and basketball court located in the park precinct are particularly popular attractions and a new outdoor stage and community graffiti board will soon be added to the park area. Developments within Ngukurr’s parks are broadening the opportunity for day and evening activities. Safe well lit paths to walk on, shade in the heat of the day and seating and play

equipment have broadened the appeal of the park areas to the surprisingly urban population. Well planned parks provide safe, common and informal meeting areas that can take some of the pressure off denser living and commercial spaces. Parks also allow for the separation of traffic and pedestrians. Ngukurr’s park upgrades started with the "Right Path” funding from the NT Department of Corrections Services and new solar lights funded by the NT Department of Local Government and Community Services. New tree planting was funded by the Chief Minister and the Department of Business.

The generosity and ownership by the Ngukurr community of the park development has pushed along these works especially with the contribution of the Ngukurr Local Authority who have allocated nearly $60,000 to the parks improvement projects. The high standard of parks and recreation in Ngukurr is a benchmark for the rest of the region. As these relatively new towns become more established and densely populated there will be increasing need for safe, well planned and maintained public space for passive and active recreation, even in these very remote regional locations.

The Parks are Flourishing in Ngukurr

Roper Gulf to continue RSAS in Numbulwar

Ngukurr’s Pool Park was officially opened on 16th Feb 2016 during the Ngukurr Local Authority Meeting. Attendance in-cluded: CDP, DPMC & Community Champion Michael Tennant

RGRC will continue to deliver the Remote School Attendance Strategy in Numbulwar up till the end of the 2016 School year. This follows a request from the Australian Government Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet who manage the RSAS. The RSAS contract with RGRC was to have ended in December 2015 when the program was to be

taken up by local schools. Most of the local schools have taken up the program and staff members formerly employed by RGRC have largely continued their employment. RGRC is also providing human resources assistance as a transition in these programs. The continued program at

Numbulwar in 2016 will receive funding of $375,000 for the year or pro rata. This is expected to be cost neutral to Council.

The Post must go through

RGRC Community Grants Round Three 2015-16

Applications are now being sought for Community projects within the Roper Gulf Region that will benefit:;

– Local community events and activities – Economic development – The physical or natural environment

Applicants may apply for: – Up to $1,000 for minor projects – Up to $3,000 for major projects

Applications for Round Three Open: 01 February 2016

Closing date for all applications: COB (4:36pm) 18 March 2016 For application package please contact the Grants Coordinator on (08) 8972 9038 or email

[email protected]

While the big city mob are wringing their hands about the in-crease in the cost of a stamp to $1 and the reduction of postage deliveries to only twice a week, the bush mob still keep getting their mail once or twice a week through the Australia Post contractor and their local Council Service Office. RGRC delivers a con-tract service for Aus-tralia Post in Barunga, Beswick, Bulman, Jilkminggan, Ngukurr, Numbulwar and Eva Valley/Manyallauk. Each community or town has a unique mail bag address. All mail to these post of-fice bags is sorted at a central mail centre then delivered by an

Australian Post con-tractor by road and often by plane and then finally sorted at the individual town service centre by Council staff and se-curely stored awaiting pick up. RGRC is contracted to sort the mail in these communities except Mataranka which is a commercial postal agency. In Mataranka you are able to do things like buy stamps, send reg-istered mail and pay bills. These commer-cial services are cur-rently not available in other centres. One of the good parts about mail delivered to a small town with out formal street ad-dresses for postal de-livery is the Australia

Post contract workers generally knows eve-ryone and where to find them and if they are still living in town, improving the reliabil-ity of delivery. Even in floods the mail seems to get through to the small towns and communi-ties. The post is still an important part of communications in remote towns espe-cially those with lim-ited or no mobile and internet coverage. Email may be the dis-rupter of urban and rural postal services but standard postal services are still very important in many very remote towns. Mail Box addresses for The Roper Gulf Region communities and towns:

Barunga - PMB 25 via Katherine NT 0852 Beswick -PMB 26 via Katherine NT 0852 Bulman - PMB 23 via Katherine NT 0852 Jilkminggan - P.O Box 4028 Mataranka NT 0852 Ngukurr - CMB 6 via Katherine NT 0852 Numbulwar -CMB 17 via Katherine NT 0822 Eva Valley/ Man-yallauk- PMB 134 via Katherine NT 0822

mailto:[email protected]�

Upcoming Meetings of Council and Local Authorities

Mayor Tony Jack Phone: 0428 793 132 Email: [email protected] Deputy Mayor Judy MacFarlane Phone: 0437 918 115 Email: [email protected]

Chief Executive Officer Michael Berto Phone: 0427 799 621 Email: [email protected] Reception Phone: (08) 8972 9000 Fax: (08) 8971 2607 Email: [email protected]

Contact Us

For current jobs go to www.ropergulf.nt.gov.au or email [email protected]

Job Opportunities

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: [email protected] or 08 8972 9000

Do you have a story to tell or a photograph to share?

Date Time Meeting Location

01 Mar 11.00am Hodgson Downs Local Authority Meeting ALAWA Board Room

02 Mar 10.00am Bulman Local Authority Meeting Bulman Service Delivery Centre

16 Mar 10.30am Ngukurr Local Authority Meeting Ngukurr Child Care Centre

22 Mar 10.00am Barunga Local Authority Meeting Barunga Service Delivery Centre

30 Mar 8.30am Ordinary Meeting of Council Barunga Service Delivery Centre

31 Mar 10.30am Jilkminggan Community Meeting Jilkminggan Park

31 Mar 6.30pm Mataranka Community Meeting Mataranka Community Hall

All Local Authority and Ordinary Meetings of Council are open to the Public to attend.

Please Note: Local Authority Meetings are subject to change

february ngukurr celebrates with a pool party...

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