News for Cooktown • Hope Vale • Rossville • Wujal Wujal • Bloomfield • Ayton • Marton • Lakeland • Laura • Coen
For all your advertising enquiries or bookings EMAIL: ads@cooktownlocalnews.com.au
News Cooktown Local
Your clients will be all ears when you advertise your business here! ads@cooktownlocalnews.com.au
$2 • PH: 1300 4895 00 • EDITORIAL: editor@cooktownlocalnews.com.au • Issue 607 • Thursday, March 21, 2013
Women’s shelter to be relocated to Cooktown HOPE Vale’s Jiiry Women’s Shelter is expected to relocate to Cooktown by August this year, providing a place of safety and support for women from the broader Cooktown district amid concerns for the residents’ well-being. As part of the relocation process, the region will conduct an open funding round (tender process) which is expected to open in the coming weeks. When the funding round opens, the Funding Information Paper and Funding Application Form will be available on the Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services website, as well as on the Community Door website and the State Government Funding Portal. The Funding Application Paper will highlight the service that need to be provided, the amount of funds, and the expectations that the service provider will need to meet. Member for Cook David Kempton said the Jiiry Women’s Shelter has seen a very low number of women and children using the service. “The feedback has been that women aren’t comfortable accessing the service as it’s situated too closely to where the violence is happening within their community,” Mr Kempton said. “Because of this, community consultations have been held to find out how we can keep offering the best possible service to the women and children of the Hope Vale community.” Mr Kempton said it was recognised there should be a transition to a regional-based facility, where women from other surrounding communities, such as Wujal Wujal, Bloomfield, Ayton and Cooktown, would also be able to access this support. “Through the community consultation process, it was established the service should be relocated to Cooktown as it is more central, and women and children accessing the service from other communities are more likely to feel safer,” he said. “The Department of Communities has been engaged with the current service provider throughout the consultation process. Charlie Martin, who with his late wife Virginia, used to provide emergency accommodation at their own expense on their Oakey Creek property for people in need, said he hoped due consideration will be given to the special needs of those who will use the facility when it is established. “I hope the government’s preference won’t be to have them penned up in a box in town some place,” Mr Martin said. “What some people don’t realise is that a shelter primarily used for Indigenous people needs to be ‘out of trouble area’ where they are safe, yet can still connect with the bush.” He said it was a shame his former home, which was recently sold, was not still available for the purpose. “There is the creek to collect the mussels,
a barra or perch to catch, or just generally walking the bush,” he said. “That place had already proven itself as a place for ‘healing’ in comfort.”
Charlie Martin, outside the house where he and late wife Virginia used to house homeless people at their own expense. Photo: GARY HUTCHISON.
What a couple of fine fellows
‘Irish’ Wog John O’Dessmann (left) does the Guinness tango with the world’s scariest leprechaun, Keith O’Bradford during St Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Sovereign Resort Hotel. Photo: GARY HUTCHISON.