State member for Mount Isa Rob Katter with graduate Daniel Dunne, TAFE’s Tim Campbell and Hope Vale Mayor Greg McLean.
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CHUFFED: Dugalunji Aboriginal Corporation chief executive Colin Saltmere can’t hide his joy at the funding good news.
THERE was double joy at the Dugalunji Aboriginal Corporation’s graduation ceremony at Camooweal.
Delivering the second leg of good news was state member for Mount Isa Rob Katter who was on his way to the December 18 graduation when he received word of the corporation receiving a funding grant of almost $100,000.
“They hadn’t heard, so I was stoked to be able to announce it at the graduation ceremony,” Mr Katter said.
Mr Katter said the funding would restore a historic limestone cave, “Tar Drum Cave”, so called because of the discarded tar drums used by American soldiers during the building of the Barkly Highway in World War II.
The cave is near the Camooweal Caves National Park.
Corporation chief executive Colin Saltmere said it was fitting to hear the news on the day when 33 trainees received their graduation certificates.
“It is additional funding like this that ensures we can find jobs for these graduates, so they can put the skills they have learnt into practice, with meaningful work,” Mr Saltmere said.
“For every breadwinner in work, there’s a whole family that is on their way to self-sufficiency, and that’s our ethos here at Dugalunji.”
Mr Saltmere said a lot of research was done for the funding application and it was hoped that once the cave was cleaned up, the indigenous ghost bat, macroderma gigas, would return to the cave.
“They dwell in every other cave in Camooweal except the Tar Drum Cave.’’