Walangeri Ngumpinku Aboriginal Corporation

A 20 foot shipping container stocked with supplies in the event of an emergency over the wet season arrived in Yarralin today. Donated by the Food Bank, it contains non-perishable, long-life food items designed to provide immediate, short-term relief in the event of a crisis.

Thanks to Food Bank for the donation – hopefully we won’t need to use it. The container has been placed near the local school, which becomes an evacuation centre if the community floods.

The wet season has arrived in Yarralin, with regular heavy downpours in the region occurring now about once a week. Levels at the Dashwood Crossing have risen substantially, with a vehicle washed off just a few days ago. Visitors to Yarralin are recommended to come in and out via Jasper Gorge (from the Timber Creek side).

The Jasper Gorge road is holding up well so far but you will start to encounter a few puddles. Be mindful of creek crossings and watch the weather.

In other news our General Manager is departing, with this year being his final year at Yarralin. Applications for the position are open, anyone interested can find more information through All Aspects Recruitment.

Katherine West Health Board who operate the Yarralin Health Centre have been able to get funding for an Orange Sky laundry truck in Yarralin.

The 4WD Truck has 3 washing machines and 3 dryers. Solar powered, it’s able to operate anywhere in community where it can connect to a tap. The truck will provide a much needed service to community and will visit Lingarra homestead once a week.

NT Emergency Services visited Yarralin today to discuss issues and improvements around responses to flood and other emergencies that impact community. Held at the store, the community meeting raised a number of issues we’ve faced in recent years with two particularly bad wet seasons in a row.

The Bureau of Meteorology were also present and discussion was held about the various weather reports and information community used, along with local knowledge, when it came to the impact of heavy rainfall and potential flooding during the wet.

Road maintenance was identified as a crucial issue, as without access to the Buchanan Highway for trucks to bring food in, Yarralin was effectively stranded and relied on food flown in via air.

The Board of Walangeri Ngumpinku are pleased to share our Strategic Plan for 2026 – 2030. This plan is much more comprehensive than previous years. Along with our goals for the next 5 years, it contains:

• employment information on Yarralin,
• the issues employers have had with employment,
• education and population data,
• the properties we hold in community and some of their issues,
• and the many struggles we’ve faced since 2020 – issues which a lot of remote Indigenous communities will find similar.

This document is about transparency and talking about the real issues we deal with.

You can download our new Strategic Plan, along with copies of our older plans, on the Strategic Plan section of our website.

We welcome you to circulate with your networks and to whomever may be interested.

Territory Day was celebrated in Yarralin yesterday, with most of community gathering at the oval to light off fireworks. Council back-burning carried out earlier in the week ensured there were no fires started. It was our first time selling fireworks locally through our own store for a few years and we look forward to doing it again next year.

With most of the rain having now passed, the Buchanan Highway is being graded from Timber Creek through to Top Springs. The Dashwood Crossing is still officially closed but is expected to open in the coming month when water levels drop.

While the road has held up better than last year thanks to roadworks, unfortunately two vehicles were swept off of one floodway, with one recoverable and the other unfortunately washed down river. Heavy rain that fell just before the vehicles crossed a floodway just after Jasper Crossing resulted in high speed water that overpowered the vehicles.

It’s an unfortunate reminder of the risks that can occur even during a fairly mild wet season. Travellers are advised to drive to road conditions, which is 40 – 60 km/h, take it carefully, be mindful of road damage, and assess any water crossings that may be present (although as of this moment, most crossings are down to a drizzle). Currently there is still water pooled on the road in some places.

Travel is restricted to 4WD only, with the road expected to be open to trucks around May.

UPDATE: The road has been graded and is now open to all vehicles as of May 2025.

Supported by Victoria Daly Regional Council and Walangeri Ngumpinku Aboriginal Corporation, Yarralin Day is a celebration of Yarralin during the Australia Day week. Council held a BBQ for community, with plenty of meat.

Colin Campbell was presented with an award by the Mayor, Brian Pedwell.

Two killers (cattle) were bought from the nearby cattle station, where the General Manager’s dog ran off at the gunshot and was missing for a day, only to turn up at Helimuster’s chopper hangar the next night.

With plenty of food and drinks, community had a great time.

The following roadworks are planned for the Buchanan Highway, before the end of November 2024.
A new culvert installed at the mud pit (5 km after the turn-off), it will also have a concrete floodway over the top.

The sealed section outside of VRD will be repaired and resealed.
The gate on the road to Yarralin (at the Buchanan Highway turn-off) will be replaced with a grid.
Repair to flood damaged sections from Victoria Hwy intersection to Dashwood intersection.
Plans to repair flood damaged sections between Dashwood Crossing to Top Springs.

These works, along with increased food stored at the store will hopefully see us get through the wet season in better condition.

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve engaged Outback Stores Australia to help us manage the Yarralin Community Store. We’ve been running the store independently since 2022 and unfortunately it’s become too difficult to manage by ourselves. Gone are the days when all you needed was a cash register and some stock to run a local store. The legislative requirements around licensing, and food safety, getting IT support for the computer programs and systems needed, and the low purchasing power of a small independent store all added significantly to our costs and the time required to manage the store.

Outback Stores Australia operate over 50+ stores across Australia. Their team are well-versed in the legislative requirements, with back-end IT support available at a moment’s notice, and purchasing power which will help keep costs down for our community, as well as visitors. We were also impressed with their training program, which will see our local staff receive formal certified training which will allow us to manage the store with more local managers.

Their contacts with Government will also assist us during the wet season to ensure we have enough food to get through, regardless of the weather. Outback Stores are also assisting us in the design and construction of our new store, as part of our community’s overall Master Planning process.

We look forward to working with Outback Stores and seeing the prices on a core range of products come down, benefiting community.