Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia was hon­oured to host His Excel­len­cy Gen­er­al the Hon­ourable David Hur­ley AC DSC (Retd), Gov­er­nor-Gen­er­al of the Com­mon­wealth of Aus­tralia, and Her Excel­len­cy Mrs Lin­da Hur­ley, at the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct.

Their Excel­len­cies were greet­ed at the DKA Solar Cen­tre on Mon­day August 3, by DKA CEO Dr Dan Tyson and Intyal­heme Cen­tre for Future Ener­gy Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Tris­tan Simons. Mr Simons explained the Solar Centre’s his­to­ry, prompt­ing Mrs Hur­ley to express an inter­est in car­bon off­sets, stem­ming from her ded­i­ca­tion to caus­es which sup­port sus­tain­able living.

The group then con­vened at the Busi­ness & Inno­va­tion Cen­tre where Their Excel­len­cies learned about DKA’s pur­pose and its projects.

Mr Simons con­tin­ued a con­ver­sa­tion about renew­able ener­gy, explain­ing Intyalheme’s his­to­ry, cur­rent focus and future plans. DKA Board Mem­ber and Arid Lands Envi­ron­ment Cen­tre CEO Jim­my Cock­ing, also attend­ed, to high­light the envi­ron­men­tal ben­e­fits of many Cen­tral Aus­tralian projects.

Codes 4 Life Man­ag­er Michael Lid­dle dis­cussed his pro­gram and work­shops, explain­ing the focus on keep­ing com­mu­ni­ties safe, and encour­ag­ing Abo­rig­i­nal men to acknowl­edge and par­tic­i­pate in rules and knowledge.

He spoke of the impor­tance of under­stand­ing rules from the per­spec­tive of both Abo­rig­i­nal law and Com­mon­wealth law. The Gov­er­nor-Gen­er­al engaged in dis­cus­sion about Codes 4 Life, not­ing sim­i­lar­i­ties to a project based in Aurukun in Far North Queensland.

Dr Tyson then shared details of the recent grant fund­ing from Ter­ri­to­ry Fam­i­lies, explain­ing that DKA’s new women’s pro­gram would focus on domes­tic vio­lence and com­ple­ment the Codes 4 Life mod­el. Their Excel­len­cies also acknowl­edged DKA’s oth­er com­mu­ni­ty-focused oper­a­tions, includ­ing its col­lab­o­ra­tion with CASSE Aus­tralia and an upcom­ing enter­prise for training.

Final­ly, Her Excel­len­cy Mrs Hur­ley shared her pas­sion for singing, first per­form­ing a song her­self, and then encour­ag­ing group singing. Her Excel­len­cy is a strong believ­er of how singing can have a pos­i­tive impact in a group.

Once the DKA vis­it con­clud­ed, Their Excel­len­cies were escort­ed to the Cen­tre for Appro­pri­ate Tech­nol­o­gy to con­fer about the Precinct’s oth­er projects over after­noon tea.