Reports & Documents may be downloaded from
the OACDT Web Site.
To be able to view this documentation from our site you will require
Adobe Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Word.
TWENTY FIVE YEARS OF CHANGE AND ACHIEVEMENT
In the first year of its operations in 1978/79 the Outback Areas Community Development Trust made financial contributions to ten outback communities including the then Coober Pedy Progress and Miners’ Association Inc. Funds made available in that first year amounted to $93,500.
Now the Trust recognises 36 remote communities for funding assistance purposes. During the intervening 25 years some of the original and early communities like Cook, Mount Gunson, Iron Baron and Hesso have closed down and Coober Pedy now has its own local government area. But many others have begun a productive association with the Trust with the most recent addition being the 2001 recognition of the expanding opal mining community at Seven Waterholes on Lambina Station.
The Trust has approved subsidy payments for community projects totalling $6.2 million over the 25 years of its operations. It has also made very significant financial contributions to the maintenance of 18 public toilets in its area of responsibility, two Septic Tank Effluent Disposal (STED) systems at Oodnadatta and Marla and a waste water treatment plant at Blinman.
Until the responsibility was transferred to the Office of Energy Policy in July 1997 the Trust funded and operated 10 electricity ‘undertakings’ (local off-grid power generation).
Funding priorities have fluctuated with development imperatives and technology changes. Significant funds have, for instance, been made available for aerodrome establishment and maintenance particularly following the decision by the Commonwealth government to transfer regional and remote aerodrome responsibility to local communities.
The following substantial funding examples illustrate both the priorities that have driven remote communities over the last 25 years and the diversity of projects that the Trust and its communities have dealt with.
In the more recent years assistance with projects to upgrade existing communications technology and adopt new approaches has increasingly occupied the Trust’s time. These projects have related to radio and TV rebroadcast facilities, computer awareness and public access to the internet and the establishment and maintenance of Ultra High Frequency two-way radio repeater towers in the outback.
While acknowledging that satellite communications are the eventual way forward, the Trust’s interest in the mantle of safety provided for travellers by an appropriate network of UHF towers is a pragmatic acceptance of the extensive historical investment in two-radio technology that exists throughout the outback.
Please see the following link that relates to our 25 Year Celebrations:
Rural ABC:
