The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) has appointed a community development champion from rural South Australia to lead its research into bush products.

Born, bred and based in Port Augusta, Ms Jenny Cleary manages a national team of researchers working on a wide range of projects aimed at strengthening the bush foods industry across desert Australia.

The Bush Products Project contributes to the development of this emerging industry in areas such as horticulture and wild harvest of bush foods, wood, fibre and craft products.

Ms Cleary said the research seeks to boost the dollar value from bush products and the number of desert people, especially Aboriginal people, making a living from the industry.

“It is one of seven core research projects of the Desert Knowledge CRC and investigates the economic benefits desert people and their communities may derive from this growing industry and the capacity they need to support it.

The project involves research on market and industry development, branding and policy related matters, on how to attract investors, the diversification of bush livelihoods and the creation of Aboriginal enterprises,” she said.

Ms Cleary joins the nationwide research network from Rural Solutions SA, a South Australian Government owned consultancy business, where she was Program Leader Community Development.

Her passion for building sustainable desert communities has seen her and her team accomplish several successful initiatives.

Among them are Outback Connect, a project funded by the Department of Further Education, Employment, Science and Training (DFEEST) which trains people from rural and remote communities in internet use, and a multi-agency partnership that developed an electronic tool for these communities to self-assess their capacity to take part in natural resource management.

With considerable experience in program management, community health administration and vocational education, Ms Cleary is currently completing a Masters Degree in Human …

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Ian has been appointed Business Manager at Desert Knowledge CRC and will commence on 10 April 2006. He has been a resident of the Northern Territory since 1985 with his wife Alison and their three children, and is recognised by his professional association as a Fellow of CPA Australia.

Since graduating as an accountant from Deakin University in his hometown of Geelong, Ian has gained experience in a range of positions. He initially worked as a commercial accountant in Melbourne for eight years with retail and trading companies. Since moving to the Territory 20 years ago, he has worked with a number of Aboriginal organisations and communities, which includes twelve years as financial controller with the Central Land Council (CLC).

In recent years he has been involved in Local Government and in the past two to three years as Director of Finance with the Alice Springs Town Council.

Ian has also enjoyed living and working in other parts of the Territory, including five years in the early 1990s in the Top End at Yirrkala Community and Yirrkala Business Enterprises in Nhulunbuy, and a computer company in Darwin.

Ian is no stranger to cross-cultural situations and for much of his employment at CLC was heavily involved with mineral royalty distributions through incorporated associations that were developed to encourage investment strategies. Property investments and joint venture arrangements were accessed through networks with Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Company Pty Ltd.

Ian has a strong background in financial reporting and systems development and is very keen to participate in Desert Knowledge commercialisation.…

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Dear Network Member,

Every month from now on I’ll be sending you an email to keep you up to date with what’s happening at the Desert Knowledge CRC.

Commonwealth Review

An eventful year for the Desert Knowledge CRC has ended on a very positive note. The report from the independent Commonwealth Review team chaired by Dr John Childs is just in, and I’m pleased to say we’ve passed with flying colours.

The review found that we have performed extremely well in our first three years of operation and, while established as a public good CRC, some of our research projects are likely to lead to the development of commercial processes and products.

It endorsed our priorities for the future and commented that we have developed the strong relationships with stakeholders and reputation for making a sensitive and productive contribution that are a prerequisite for the successful conduct of social action research.

The review panel commended our ”unique achievements in engaging Aboriginal people in research, an outcome that is expected to be enduring”. It said this was “an achievement no other organisation or CRC could have created” because others “undertake research but do not achieve diffusion amongst local Aboriginal communities”.

These findings were backed up by an industry survey which found that we:

• are very well connected to end users and are creating significant tangible and intangible value for them
•  receive strong support from end users for our approach to collaboration and engagement with them • attract strong satisfaction from end users for our research communication and our strategies for achieving commercial outcomes from our research
•  are strongly believed to deliver improvements to the desert economy through the development of new business.

We could not have achieved such an excellent result without the support of our partners. A big thank you …

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A belated Happy New Year and welcome back everybody, I hope your break was as relaxing as mine. It was great to come back to Alice Springs after the recent rains which filled the waterholes, brought some welcome cooler weather and turned the Centre a vivid green. Check out the pics of the Todd in full flow!

We achieved a great deal last year and really needed this break. I’m determined that we will pace and look after ourselves a bit better this year, while still maintaining a sense of urgency about our work.

Staff News

A special welcome to our new staff members Jenny Cleary, Lynette Swan and Tahnee Brown.

Lynette and Tahnee, both from Alice Springs, are our new program assistants supporting our research, communication and commercialisation work.

Jenny takes over from Maarten Ryder as leader of the Bush Products from the Desert core project. Jenny joins us from Rural Solutions SA, a government-owned consultancy business in Port Augusta and comes with a solid reputation in community development. I’d like to acknowledge the kind support from the South Australian Outback Areas Development Trust, which allows Jenny to remain based in her home town of Port Augusta and strengthens our collaboration with our South Australian stakeholders. You can read all about her appointment in last week’s media release.

A big thank you to Maarten for helping to develop the project since 2004. He wanted more time to pursue his wider research interests but will stay involved in the Bush Products team.

Terri Harbrow has elected to return to Brisbane for family reasons. We wish her well.

The restructure of our management team has seen Craig James take on the newly created position of General Manager Communication and Commercialisation. He will shortly be moving to Canberra for family reasons.

Ruth …

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