The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and Desert Knowledge
Australia (DKA) are sister organisations that have grown out of the Desert Knowledge movement.

They represent the efforts of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people of desert Australia to develop sustainable desert economies.

Both are national organisations with offices in Alice Springs, and are governed by independent boards.

DKA is a cross-border organisation that builds networks and partnerships across desert Australia for an economic and socially sustainable future. Its networks extend into every state and territory with a remote or desert region, from Kalgoorlie, Mt Isa, Alice Springs, Broken Hill to Port Augusta.

DKA’s Linked Business Network project is supported by the Desert Knowledge CRC, and helps desert businesses from across Australia to network, share information, build critical mass and develop joint business opportunities.

Another project, the Desert Knowledge Australia COOLmob, raises awareness of energy efficiency in Alice Springs.

DKA is funded by the Northern Territory Government and supported by the Australian Government.

A bit of history ….

During the 1990s Central Australian desert people began to realise that their knowledge of living and working in desert Australia was valuable. They believed that developing this knowledge, both ancient and recent, could help to improve the livelihoods of desert people everywhere.

The Desert Knowledge ‘movement’ was born in 2000, when community and government formed the Desert Knowledge Steering Committee. Desert Knowledge Australia (DKA) became a statutory corporation in 2003. It set out to build on people’s desert knowledge by creating a research organisation linking the best of Aboriginal knowledge with the best of Western science.

DKA won a bid to the federal Cooperative Research Centre Program to fund a Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC). In July 2003, the Desert Knowledge CRC began to operate as a national research network with partners nationwide and a small secretariat in Alice Springs.

From 2007, the Desert Knowledge CRC, Desert Knowledge Australia, and the Desert Peoples Centre (formerly the Centre for Appropriate Technology and Batchelor Institute for Indigenous Tertiary Education) will be co-located at the new Desert Knowledge Precinct on the southern outskirts of Alice Springs.