Venue Hire
Services
Desert Knowledge Australia logo

News

Jimmy Cocking set to lead DKA into a new era

April 7th, 2022

Well-known community leader and long-term Alice Springs resident Jimmy Cocking will assume the role of DKA CEO from Monday, 4 July 2022.

Well-known com­mu­ni­ty leader and long-term Alice Springs res­i­dent Jim­my Cock­ing will assume the role of Desert Knowl­edge Australia’s (DKA) Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer from Mon­day, 4 July 2022. Jim­my replaces DKA’s pre­vi­ous CEO Dr Dan Tyson, who served in the role for near­ly three years.

Jim­my has lived in Mparn­twe (Alice Springs) since 2008, and has exten­sive expe­ri­ence work­ing with local com­mu­ni­ty-based and region­al organ­i­sa­tions. His skills, pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence and local knowl­edge will help strength­en DKA’s efforts to advance Cen­tral Aus­tralia, and advo­cate for the region and its people.

Over the past two decades, Jim­my has held senior posi­tions at organ­i­sa­tions work­ing to cre­ate bet­ter out­comes for remote and region­al Aus­tralia. He has exten­sive expe­ri­ence in eco­log­i­cal sus­tain­abil­i­ty, com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment, and cre­at­ing eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple liv­ing in Australia’s arid zone.

Jim­my said, ​“I’m keen for DKA to be work­ing with the com­mu­ni­ties of Cen­tral Aus­tralia, the Gov­ern­ment and oth­er stake­hold­ers towards build­ing a more col­lab­o­ra­tive, sus­tain­able and resilient Cen­tral Australia.

“DKA is unique­ly placed to play a lead­ing role improv­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and liveli­hoods for desert com­mu­ni­ties. I look for­ward to strength­en­ing exist­ing rela­tion­ships and build­ing new part­ner­ships to bet­ter tack­le the chal­lenges around cli­mate change, water, hous­ing, and renew­able ener­gy in Cen­tral Australia.

“I’m excit­ed to be join­ing the team at DKA, and work­ing with the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct part­ners to realise the full poten­tial of the Precinct and demon­strate its val­ue to the wider community.”

Jimmy’s pro­fes­sion­al expe­ri­ence and per­son­al val­ues are strong­ly aligned with DKA’s strate­gic focus areas in socioe­co­nom­ic devel­op­ment and envi­ron­men­tal sustainability.

Inter­im Chair Chris Fry wel­comed Jimmy’s arrival, and the exper­tise and com­mu­ni­ty rela­tion­ships he brings to the role, say­ing, ​“The DKA Board wel­comes Jim­my to the team. We antic­i­pate that his appoint­ment marks the new begin­ning of a robust jour­ney to progress remote and desert Australia.

“I thank Dr Dan Tyson for his role in estab­lish­ing DKA’s recent activ­i­ties in research, water secu­ri­ty, renew­able ener­gy, lead­er­ship and eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment, and look for­ward to work­ing with Jim­my on expand­ing these ini­tia­tives and more, with renewed com­mit­ment to Cen­tral Australia.”