A new era of civil construction is taking shape across the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. The launch of Ngaanyatjarra Civil—a fully Yarnangu-staffed civil works enterprise under the Ngaanyatjarra Council Group—is creating real, long-term job opportunities for local people to work on Country.

Born out of collaboration across the Council Group and supported by NIAA’s Remote Jobs and Economic Development (RJED) Program, the business was established in response to major upcoming infrastructure work along the Outback Way. This national project includes the sealing of over 700 kilometres of road through the Ngaanyatjarra region, creating a pipeline of work for years to come.

To prepare Yarnangu for these roles, Council has invested in heavy machinery, licensed training, and on-Country mentoring—laying the groundwork for a skilled and ready civil workforce through Ngaanyatjarra Civil.

The immediate goal was training individuals and teams to be Main Roads competent operators and qualified to take on current and future road and civil projects on the Lands. 

Ngaanyatjarra Civil is part of the Council’s vision to provide meaningful work opportunities that strengthen the local economy.

The business will offer services such as road building, exploration projects such as drill pads, and community projects like pothole repair, drainage realignment, and the grading of existing roads and hunting tracks.

In preparation for this work, the Council has acquired a grader, a roller, loaders, floats, and the associated gear for roadworks, and then undertaken the training of community members to be job-ready. 

The initial training intake included two weeks of safety inductions and classroom work, on-the-job machinery operation, and information sessions for working in off-site camps. Forty community members undertook this initial training.

Workers are representative of almost every community on the Lands, and while mentorship has been provided by RTOs and affiliated businesses on the Lands, only yarnangu have operated machinery.

Matt Riches, General Manager of Infrastructure Services at Ngaanyatjarra Council, has been unsurprised by the ability of community members to quickly adapt to machine operation that many take careers to master.

“Their innate skill in machine operation, often formed through sporting ability, is rapidly transferred to this equipment,” Riches said.

“I’ve witnessed trainee machine operators over the last couple of weeks, show a level of craft in using a grader to cut a formed up road that would be the envy of seasoned veterans,”

“If I had side-tippers with base course, I’d be carrying on with road building off the standard of their work,” Riches added.

In the first round of heavy machinery training, which focussed on Warburton community members, seven were accredited as licensed loader operators, three as licensed grader operators, four were as licensed roller operators, one as a licensed semi water cart operator, and three as skid steer operators.

The second round of training included 13 members representing Jameson, Blackstone and Wingellina, while the third round of training included ten members from Wanarn and Warakurna.

There is an immediate pipeline of around $3 million of capital works that has been secured and July 1 marked a two-week block of training to equip the Warburton team for this work. Having completed this block of training, each worker will have a minimum of 100 hours of accumulated training.

The Council has been able to provide these opportunities through its collaboration with NIAA and RJED jobs trial. 

“Our goal with the RJED jobs trial was to see as many community members into meaningful work as possible, but we realised that we’d need to see how flexibly we could work with the trial,” said Leigh Nelson, General Manager of  Communities.

“We’ve continued to seek ways to break down the barriers and entry to work for yarnangu,”

“Simply, we’re now looking at utilising the total hours that we have available to stimulate work across the Lands. Necessity being the mother of invention, we’ve needed to understand how we can make this program work for our community members, and we’re heading in the right direction,”

“The creation of Ngaanyatjarra Civil provides significant, tangible, long-term employment opportunities that can be initially leveraged by the opportunities afforded by the RJED trial,” Nelson said.

The adaptation of the RJED trial and the birth of Ngaanyatjarra Civil highlights the power of synergy across the Council.

“One of our unique advantages, demanded by the remoteness of our communities, is that the Council is responsible for all services, programs, and activities on the Lands excepting education and policing,” said Thomas Williams, Council CEO.

“This enables us to look across the different service areas of the Council, in this case Infrastructure Services and Community Development, and identify ways that we can better work together for our community members,” said Williams.

“The potential of Ngaanyatjarra Civil, particularly as the momentum and opportunity around The Outback Way accelerates, is enormous for meaningful work and economic development on the Lands,”

“We know that substantial economic opportunity feeds into much of our vision for yarnangu to stay strong on country, so this is a significant part of our way forward,” Williams said.

While initial training of machinery operators will continue through July, work projects will begin in August with further opportunities for new operators as substantial projects are added.