Our Annual Report: Highlights from the 2023-24 financial year

Our 2023 – 24 Annu­al Report has just land­ed and putting it togeth­er has been an oppor­tu­ni­ty for us to reflect on past sto­ries and achieve­ments, while look­ing to the future.

We con­tin­ued our mis­sion to pro­mote social well­be­ing and sus­tain­able inno­va­tion in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, while pur­su­ing ambi­tious pipeline projects, such as launch­ing the new Remote Focus program.

From advanc­ing social ini­tia­tives to bring­ing more peo­ple to the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct and shar­ing trans­for­ma­tive ener­gy solu­tions, it was a big year. There’s just too much to fit into one article.

You can read it all in our full annu­al report or see our best sum­ma­ry below.

A hub for events and collaboration

DKA active­ly pro­mot­ed the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct as a cul­tur­al­ly safe and unique event venue through­out the year. The Busi­ness and Inno­va­tion Cen­tre (BIC) wel­comed approx­i­mate­ly 4,600 vis­i­tors, host­ing organ­i­sa­tions such as the Cen­tral Land Coun­cil, NPY Women’s Coun­cil, and the Nation­al Indige­nous Aus­tralians Agency.

Office space occu­pan­cy remained high, with social impact organ­i­sa­tions fill­ing the BIC, includ­ing Pur­ple House and the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry Indige­nous Busi­ness Net­work (NTIBN) hub, which host­ed mul­ti­ple events fol­low­ing its launch in Novem­ber 2023.

Key events at the Precinct includ­ed infor­ma­tion ses­sions about the Voice Ref­er­en­dum, camp­fire yarns for NAIDOC week, CfAT’s dig­i­tal sto­ry­telling course for Abo­rig­i­nal youth, and a new com­mu­ni­ty-mind­ed café man­ag­er bring­ing new ener­gy to this cam­pus hub.

Numer­ous part­ners, indus­try heads, and politi­cians also came to vis­it the Precinct and talk to DKA about our work, and CEO Jim­my Cock­ing rep­re­sent­ed DKA on sev­er­al boards and at con­fer­ences around the country.

Alice Springs Future Grid: The Roadmap to 2030

In 2023 – 24, DKA com­plet­ed the three-year Future Grid project, pre­sent­ing the Roadmap to 2030—an in-depth report out­lin­ing the tran­si­tion to a renew­able ener­gy future in Alice Springs.

The report exam­ines the region’s ener­gy his­to­ry, the need for change, and poten­tial sce­nar­ios to achieve 50% renew­ables by 2030. It’s based on five dif­fer­ent sub-projects and real-world tri­als in a real feat of col­lab­o­ra­tion between local partners.

The Roadmap was unveiled in Novem­ber 2023 dur­ing a CSIRO-host­ed livestream attend­ed by near­ly 100 par­tic­i­pants. A press release in March 2024 secured wide­spread media cov­er­age, includ­ing local out­lets like Cen­tralian Today and NT News, as well as ener­gy sec­tor plat­forms such as PV Mag­a­zine and Renew Econ­o­my. DKA’s Com­mu­ni­ty Launch event in April 2024 attract­ed 40 atten­dees for a sun­set pre­sen­ta­tion, Solar Cen­tre tour, and a deep­er dive into the report’s findings.

Sup­port­ing communities

In 2023, the hir­ing of Lisa Watts as Pro­gram Man­ag­er brought new ener­gy to DKA’s social well­be­ing ini­tia­tives. New team mem­bers were recruit­ed to fur­ther devel­op men’s sup­port pro­grams, includ­ing expand­ing the flag­ship Codes 4 Life project and devel­op­ing a Men’s Iden­ti­ty Pro­gram along­side a ded­i­cat­ed Men’s Space at the Precinct.

These efforts were com­ple­ment­ed by com­mu­ni­ty con­sul­ta­tions for the pro­posed Cen­tral Aus­tralian Lan­guage Cen­tre and con­tri­bu­tions to the Jus­tice Rein­vest­ment project, aimed at reduc­ing incar­cer­a­tion rates through pre­ven­ta­tive social programs.

Look­ing ahead

DKA also con­tin­ued to work towards the pil­lars of its strate­gic plan, an ambi­tious vision for the fur­ther devel­op­ment of the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct and an expan­sion of the role served by DKA in the region from 2023 – 25.

This includes place-based goals: increas­ing the util­i­sa­tion of the Precinct, devel­op­ing accom­mo­da­tion on site for stu­dents and vis­i­tors, and estab­lish­ing a Knowl­edge and Wis­dom Cen­tre, a cul­tur­al­ly safe place to pre­serve and share First Nations cul­ture and language.

Broad­er region­al objec­tives include the estab­lish­ment of the Remote Focus ini­tia­tive to bring part­ners togeth­er to solve local prob­lems, par­tic­u­lar­ly in mit­i­gat­ing the impacts of a chang­ing climate.

A lot of work was done to pur­sue and pro­mote these new ideas and devel­op­ments in 2023 – 24, busi­ness cas­es being devel­oped for the Knowl­edge and Wis­dom Cen­tre and on-site accom­mo­da­tion, grants being applied for, and CEO Jim­my Cock­ing pre­sent­ing the con­cepts to fed­er­al politi­cians in Canberra.

Fund­ing was secured for the Remote Focus ini­tia­tive with a new staff mem­ber being recruit­ed to dri­ve it for­ward from Octo­ber 2024.

As DKA con­tin­ues to fos­ter social, envi­ron­men­tal, and eco­nom­ic inno­va­tion in Cen­tral Aus­tralia, the achieve­ments of 2023 – 24 reflect the organisation’s com­mit­ment to cre­at­ing last­ing impact. Through part­ner­ships, cul­tur­al­ly sen­si­tive pro­grams, and a vision for a sus­tain­able future, DKA is well-posi­tioned to address the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties fac­ing the region.

You can read the full annu­al report here