The Department of Human Services has
been replacing service centres in remote
communities. It's part of our commitment
to provide better outcomes for
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples. The first two were opened
in Wadeye and Halls Creek, in 2016 and 17.
Now the newest service centre
has been delivered – across more than
four thousand kilometres of land and
sea. The journey began in a factory
in Adelaide, from where six building
modules were trucked to Darwin; then
barged to the Gulf of Carpentaria
– to Groote Eylandt, home of the
Anindilyakwa people.
Construction of the modules for the Angurugu
service centre on Groote Eylandt began in
mid-September 2017, at the Ausco factory
in Adelaide. Chris White is Ausco's
Business Development Manager: "So we'll
be constructing the 6 modules in
this factory and they'll take about
4 weeks to build. You can see the
production process behind us, starts off
with the floor going through, walls
go on, ceilings, cladding – and that
whole process takes about 4 weeks."
The modules were then trucked more
than three thousand kilometres to
Darwin, to be offloaded at the port there.
"So that long a journey really
requires a journey management plan.
They can't just drive for that long,
they've got to manage so they're driving
for a certain time, have their
proper rest periods, they drive in
convoy to make sure they're all OK with
each other, have their rest stops and
take that week to literally get to Darwin".
"Staff right across Service
Zone Northern Australia are very excited
about the new office at Groote Eylandt.
The office has been transported
up from Adelaide and it passed many
of our sites along the way, through
Alice Springs, Tennant Creek and
Katherine; and staff were able to snap
photos to send to our staff at Groote
Eylandt to assure them that their new
office was absolutely on its way."
On schedule, all six modules finally
arrived at the Sea Swift depot in
Darwin, on Sunday the 5th of November.
The next phase of the trip was to
begin in two days' time… With two new
service centres recently opened, and
this third one on the way, why is the
Department making them a priority?
"By putting the new offices that we've
got into communities, we're instilling
a sense of pride in community and
the staff who work in those sites,
as well as encouraging more local
people to apply for employment with
the department". The old office at
Angurugu on Groote Eylandt served a total
population of nearly three thousand
on the island. It was a cramped office,
shared with other Agencies. But
the new one will be as good as any
around the country. It'll be part of
a so-called 'Government precinct', in
Angurugu. "It's right in the centre
of the community, so I approve of that.
For the people, they like it."
"It'd be good not to share an office
anymore, and to have our own space and
just have a new fresh building."
Back at the Sea Swift depot in Darwin,
all six modules and a crane were carefully
loaded onto the barge "Sandfly".
So far, so good, the weather was
holding… but for Ausco's Chris White,
it was touch-and-go: "We're relying
on good sea conditions to make
this happen. If the seas are too
rough, or the winds are too strong, we
won't get this barged over to the
island in time, which won't let us be
able to finish this by Christmas."
But conditions remained favourable and
the "Sandfly" left Darwin on time. It
was to be a 3-day barge trip across
the top of Arnhem Land, to the Groote
Eylandt port of Alyangula. With
the barge arriving on time, it was just
a matter of unloading the crane and
modules – in preparation for their
final 20 kilometre road trip to the
community of Angurugu. Meanwhile, at
the site, preparations were underway
despite frequent downpours of rain.
Concrete pillars and rails had to
be put in place, to support the 6
modules. With heavy rain sometimes
affecting progress, it took two days
to painstakingly crane all 6 modules into position.
"Once the buildings are
on site and craned into position,
we complex them together – that's
sealing the building modules together
so they're all weatherproof and look
like a finished product altogether;
and that takes about a four-week
period." The Angurugu service centre was
opened to the public a few days before
Christmas 2017. It took just over
thirteen weeks from the start of
construction in the Ausco factory, to
handover to the Department of Human
Services. With three of these new service
centres now open to the public in
remote areas of northern Australia,
the Department is looking at building more.
It's all part of our commitment
to improve services for Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people.
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