Stories

A Peek Past the Red-Dirt Gates

Jan 15, 2020

Services: Desert Knowledge Precinct, DKA Solar Centre

As part of our endeav­our to engage more with the Alice Springs pub­lic and our fol­low­ers, we would like to start the year giv­ing you some insight into the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct (DKP), which sits on 73 hectares of spec­tac­u­lar Arrernte land just behind its huge red-dirt gates on South Stu­art Highway.

The Precinct’s key part­ners, Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA), Batch­e­lor Insti­tute of Indige­nous Ter­tiary Edu­ca­tion and Cen­tre for Appro­pri­ate Tech­nol­o­gy (CfAT), have worked togeth­er to cre­ate a place for knowl­edge shar­ing. The part­ners share sim­i­lar goals and val­ues, and all work out of the DKP.

The Busi­ness & Inno­va­tion Cen­tre (BIC) is a sophis­ti­cat­ed office facil­i­ty set in Cen­tral Aus­tralian bush­land, and deliv­ers a wel­com­ing envi­ron­ment which encour­ages learn­ing, knowl­edge shar­ing and col­lab­o­ra­tion. DKA and its two flag­ship projects, Codes 4 Life and the Intyal­heme Cen­tre for Future Ener­gy, are locat­ed at the BIC.

The BIC also serves as office space for Tan­gen­tyere Coun­cil, Indige­nous Busi­ness Aus­tralia, Indige­nous Desert Alliance, Desert Sup­port Ser­vices and Ter­ri­to­ry Nat­ur­al Resource Man­age­ment. There are even con­fer­ence spaces avail­able for hire here, which made the BIC the hub for rough­ly 100 meet­ings, sem­i­nars and con­fer­ences last year.

The BIC wel­comed over 1,700 vis­i­tors in 2019, who have engaged in oppor­tu­ni­ties for com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, men­tal health, edu­ca­tion, desert research, knowl­edge shar­ing, busi­ness and dig­i­tal inno­va­tion, and cre­ative workshops.

The Precinct is also home to the Desert Peo­ples Cen­tre, a joint ven­ture between Batch­e­lor Insti­tute and CfAT, which was estab­lished to cre­ate new and pro­duc­tive learning.

Batch­e­lor Insti­tute is Australia’s only Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander dual sec­tor ter­tiary edu­ca­tion provider. The Insti­tute admin­is­ters a main­stream edu­ca­tion sys­tem through an Abo­rig­i­nal and Tor­res Strait Islander lens, incor­po­rat­ing Indige­nous knowl­edges and ways of learn­ing and West­ern knowl­edges and ways of learning.

CfAT is a not-for-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion which sup­ports peo­ple in region­al and remote Aus­tralia in main­tain­ing a rela­tion­ship with coun­try, by pro­vid­ing solu­tions to infra­struc­ture chal­lenges which pri­mar­i­ly include reli­able pow­er, water sup­ply, dig­i­tal con­nec­tiv­i­ty, built infra­struc­ture, train­ing and skills development.

CfAT’s vision is fur­thered by its com­mer­cial arm, Ekisti­ca, which ful­fils advi­so­ry, project devel­op­ment, engi­neer­ing design and project deliv­ery ser­vices. Ekisti­ca pro­vides pro­fes­sion­al advice and tech­ni­cal con­sul­ta­tions to clients such as nation­al and state gov­ern­ments, inter­gov­ern­men­tal agen­cies and pow­er utilities.

The Precinct also hous­es the famed Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia Solar Cen­tre (DKASC), the largest mul­ti-tech­nol­o­gy solar demon­stra­tion facil­i­ty in the South­ern Hemi­sphere. The DKASC web­site pro­vides the pub­lic with qual­i­ty data about solar pow­er. These open-access reports are accessed by over 10,000 annu­al users around the world, with a base com­posed of researchers, stu­dents and oth­er mem­bers of the pub­lic inter­est­ed in study­ing and bet­ter under­stand­ing solar-relat­ed tech­nol­o­gy and envi­ron­men­tal factors.

The Precinct gates are open Mon­day to Fri­day between 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, for any­one curi­ous enough to cruise through and take a peek at the Solar Cen­tre or any of the oth­er facilities.

You could also stop by G.A.P.’s Kitchen, the Precinct café, which is sure to have some­thing to suit your fan­cy. Whether you’re in the mood for a scrump­tious lunch, or a cof­fee and baked good­ies, Gavin, Archie & Pen­ny (G.A.P.) will be delight­ed to have you drop in.

Vis­i­tors can even pre-book a tour through the Edu­tourism pro­gram and have an expert talk you through some excit­ing desert knowl­edge which com­bines ancient Abo­rig­i­nal knowl­edges with the newest STEAM research. Although the pro­gram is designed for stu­dents in Upper Pri­ma­ry, Mid­dle, Senior and Ter­tiary pro­grams, it can be tai­lored for oth­er groups on request.

Whether it’s at a com­mu­ni­ty event, an edu­ca­tion­al chat as we take you through a tour, or even a friend­ly wave as you pass through the Precinct, DKA is look­ing for­ward to see­ing you all this year. The team wish­es you a pros­per­ous 2020!

Other DKA Stories

Spotted this Spring: Wildflowers at the Desert Knowledge Precinct

Oct 14, 2024

It's been a beautiful spring at the Desert Knowledge Precinct, our buffel management efforts meaning native wildflowers have been thriving and blanketing the site with colour.

Batchelor Institute celebrates new cohort of graduates

Sept 16, 2024

The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education's inspiring graduation ceremony took place at the Desert Knowledge Precinct, Mpartnwe (Alice Springs) on Thursday.

40+ rangers trained in fire management over two-day ecological burn

Aug 12, 2024

Rangers, fire services, and organisations came together to carry out a controlled burn of two areas of land at the Precinct, part of Batchelor Institute’s Conservation and Land Management course.