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Goodooga Shines!

Remote community revives itself through partnership and pride
By Ian Stanford
Chief Executive, OEC Employment

Goodooga is not a tourist destination. This small community in the remoteness of outback NSW near the Queensland border is a jumbled collection of houses, a school and several boarded up shops and public buildings. It isn’t on the way from anywhere to anywhere. Ask residents of towns in Lightning Ridge or Walgett and they’ll tell you “Goodooga is a sad place”.

But they would be wrong. Unlike some other outback NSW settlements, Goodooga is a shining example of what can be achieved with a great idea, clear vision, community commitment, collaboration and cooperation from supportive and well-informed partners and appropriate use of government money, including the controversial Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) payments. (Virtually all of Goodooga’s 400 or so residents are indigenous people.)

Take a trip around Goodooga right now and you will see teams of keen men and women, togged up in neat protective clothing, enthusiastically engaged in a range of projects around the town as part of the ‘My Bokhara’ project. ‘My Bokhara’ started as an initiative of the Goodooga Central School. Year 9 and 10 Geography students decided on a project to fix up the degradation of the Bokhara River close to town caused by inadequate water flows, drought, overgrazing, erosion, rubbish dumping and introduced weeds over the years. Their plan includes fencing off a section of the river, revegetating with appropriate plantings, restocking the river with native fish and yabbies, and building an educational area where classes can be held.

As the song says, “from little things, big things grow”. What started as a plan to make a shady spot on the river a good place to have outside classes has now snowballed into a range of projects around the town, engaging a large percentage of the population. With help from a number of organisations, in the form of training and equipment as well as financial support, a wonderful newlyconstructed Youth Centre now provides craft and sporting activities for kids after school; the river has been fenced off to protect the planned revegetation from the adjacent stock route; the Goodooga golf course is being reclaimed from the encroaching scrub; the tennis courts are being restored, and several other maintenance projects are in the pipeline.

This is a community shining with achievement. The town is neat and the houses well-cared for – the sense of the residents’ pride in their houses is palpable. The school is a showplace. And when you talk to them, you can see how the Goodooga people are itching to get stuck into restoring public buildings like the community hall and the defunct bowling club.

The challenges for this community are great. There’s no service station in town; to refuel you need to drive the 80 km or so to Lightning Ridge. The one surviving local store is struggling. The hospital is likely to be closed soon. The local GP is well over retirement age and emergency health care is a long way away. The main employer – a building company – closed its doors. On some measures unemployment is high.

But these people are not sitting around waiting for a handout. They are actively working with several organisations to build their capacity to develop valuable skills and generate real and sustainable employment opportunities, both within and outside Goodooga.

One of the legacies of the failed building company is a skilled workforce. They may not be building houses at the moment, but they have worked on the construction of the Youth Centre, they have become expert fencers and, with the focus on the golf course, tennis courts and bowling greens, they are learning additional skills in construction and facility maintenance.

Goodooga is one place where it seems criticism of the government’s CDEP program is ill-founded. Overseen by Murdi Paaki Regional Enterprise Corporation in partnership with OEC Employment, with financial support from the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA), and with assistance from the Catchment Management Authority (CMA) and Brewarrina Shire Council, My Bokhara is a shining example of how an indigenous community can achieve real work skills and accreditation, perform meaningful work, create a sustainable future and nurture a deep sense of community with the right type of assistance from partners who fundamentally understand and are sensitive to their particular issues.

Goodooga is not a tourist destination. Not yet. But there’s every indication that when the My Bokhara projects are finished the community will be able to offer a unique educational experience, some first-class sporting facilities to encourage tournaments and a shining example of how an indigenous community can be true to itself while participating fully in modern Australia.

This is a happy and deeply inspiring place.

Ian Stanford is Chief Executive of OEC Employment, a not-for-profit Job Network provider operating in central and western NSW. OEC works in partnership with a number of local indigenous development organisations to provide skills training and job opportunities.
For more information:
Toni Lennard
0414 855 228
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