Expertise

Consultancy

Cen­tre­farm is a Pan­el Mem­ber of Indige­nous Busi­ness Aus­trali­a’s Busi­ness Devel­op­ment and Assis­tance Pro­gram and is avail­able to under­take fee-for-ser­vice con­sul­tan­cies through­out Australia. 

We spe­cialise in the eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment of Abo­rig­i­nal lands in region­al and remote areas and our ser­vices include:

  • eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment scop­ing studies
  • fea­si­bil­i­ty studies
  • busi­ness plan­ning and advice
  • strate­gic plan­ning and advice
  • assis­tance with devel­op­ment reg­u­la­to­ry approval processes
  • assis­tance with iden­ti­fy­ing sources of devel­op­ment funding
  • assis­tance with estab­lish­ment of cor­po­rate structures
  • assis­tance with cor­po­rate man­age­ment, includ­ing governance 

Cen­tre­farm is guid­ed by a ​‘two-way’ prin­ci­ple that seeks to match Abo­rig­i­nal cul­tur­al require­ments with sol­id busi­ness prin­ci­ples for long-term success.

We oper­ate in close asso­ci­a­tion with the Tra­di­tion­al Own­er groups in each loca­tion, and with the rel­e­vant Land Council. 

Cen­tre­farm is avail­able for remote area con­sul­tan­cies and offers spe­cif­ic tech­ni­cal and man­age­ment ser­vices in:

  • nat­ur­al resource assess­ment and monitoring 
  • ground­wa­ter and sur­face water investigations
  • core infra­struc­ture plan­ning, design and devel­op­ment (e.g. bore fields) to meet urban, com­mu­ni­ty, min­ing and agri­cul­tur­al requirements
  • reg­u­la­to­ry approvals
  • con­tract management
  • project man­age­ment 

Cen­tre­farm utilis­es Abo­rig­i­nal field teams wher­ev­er pos­si­ble and prefers to engage Abo­rig­i­nal peo­ple from the area prox­i­mate to the work being undertaken.

Exam­ples of Consultancies

Ngukurr Region Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Oppor­tu­ni­ties — A Scop­ing Study

A three-month project to scope the range of eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties avail­able to the Yugul Man­gi Devel­op­ment Abo­rig­i­nal Cor­po­ra­tion as rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Ngukurr and Num­bul­war com­mu­ni­ties in the Gulf of Car­pen­taria region of the NT. The project involved vis­its to the region by three Cen­tre­farm staff and an asso­ciate and result­ed in a com­pre­hen­sive report out­lin­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties and rec­om­men­da­tions for actions to realise them. Fol­low-up con­sul­tan­cies to devel­op oppor­tu­ni­ties are planned for mid-2012.

Effec­tive Water Plan­ning — An Indige­nous Engage­ment Framework

A 12-month project for the NT Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources, Envi­ron­ment, The Arts and Sport, fund­ed by the Aus­tralian Gov­ern­ment through the Nation­al Water Com­mis­sion’s Rais­ing Nation­al Water Stan­dards Pro­gram. Cen­tre­farm engaged with the NT Gov­ern­ment, the North­ern Land Coun­cil, the North Aus­tralia Land and Sea Man­age­ment Alliance, the Abo­rig­i­nal Areas Pro­tec­tion Author­i­ty and the First Peo­ples Water Engage­ment Coun­cil as well as with the Abo­rig­i­nal com­mu­ni­ty of Wad­eye in devel­op­ing com­pre­hen­sive pro­to­cols for effec­tive and col­lab­o­ra­tive engage­ment between all par­ties over water plan­ning process­es. The result­ing report is recog­nised as best prac­tice indus­try stan­dard for water plan­ning with Indige­nous Australians.

Dut­jahn Enter­pris­es — Enter­prise Devel­op­ment in Wilu­na, WA

A three-month project fund­ed through the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, Employ­ment and Work­place Rela­tions (WA) to pre­pare a Busi­ness Plan for the pro­posed Dut­jahn Enter­pris­es, a wild-har­vest san­dal­wood col­lec­tion and pro­cess­ing busi­ness based in Wilu­na, WA. The project involved vis­its to Wilu­na by two Cen­tre­farm staff and result­ed in a bank­able busi­ness plan for the clients, a Mar­tu man and his family.

Alekarenge Bore­field Devel­op­ment, NT

With fund­ing from the Abo­rig­i­nals Ben­e­fit Account, Cen­tre­farm project designed and man­aged the devel­op­ment of a bore field to ser­vice the leas­es on the Warrabri Abo­rig­i­nal Land Trust. The project includ­ed drilling, pump test­ing, stra­ta and water sam­pling and analy­sis, hydro­ge­o­log­i­cal assess­ment and the prepa­ra­tion of an oper­a­tional and mon­i­tor­ing plan. The orig­i­nal agree­ment was for 12 bores deliv­er­ing 2000ML of water, but Cen­tre­farm suc­cess­ful­ly man­aged the project to devel­op 21 bores (both pro­duc­tion and mon­i­tor­ing) deliv­er­ing up to 5000ML. There has since been a high­ly suc­cess­ful hor­ti­cul­tur­al devel­op­ment on 96Ha of the leased land, with an excit­ing new project under devel­op­ment for the remain­ing leases.