CENTRAL COAST

 

OVERVIEW

The Central Coast region of New South Wales is on Darkinung ngura (country). It is a region rich in cultural heritage, with over 3,000 registered Aboriginal sites of cultural significance. 

Jawun began sending secondees to Darkinung ngura in March 2012. 

The region is bounded by the Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin) in the south, the Watagan Mountains in the west and the southern end of Lake Macquarie (Lake Awaba) in the north, and is aligned to the boundaries of the Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council.  

Darkinung ngura is home to a diverse and fast-growing Aboriginal community of over 21,000 people. The community continues to face significant challenges relating to employment, education and health. However, the community has embraced community-wide collaboration, underpinned by strong leadership, strong governance structures and a developing economic base. Amidst a changing landscape driven by regional population growth and expanding urban development, the Aboriginal community on Darkinung ngura has come together to drive changes and deliver services under a collaborative regional governance structure, Barang Regional Alliance. 

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITY

FIELD TEAM

  • Regional Director, Central Coast

    Liz comes to Jawun with 20 years’ experience as a communications and engagement professional across the corporate and government sectors, most recently with Aboriginal Affairs NSW. A proud Jawun alumnus, Liz was lucky enough to do a secondment with Barang Regional Alliance in 2022 and feels honoured to partner again with Barang in her role as Regional Director. Liz is deeply committed to and passionate about the Darkinjung Community and is inspired by the exceptional change makers she gets to work alongside every day.

FERGUS DAVIS

  • General Manager, Collaborative Futures

    Fergus commenced as Jawun General Manager, Collaborative Futures in 2021 after 3 years as Jawun’s Regional Director for the Central Coast region.

    Prior to working on the Central Coast, Fergus was the Jawun Regional Director for the Inner Sydney region. Fergus’ connection with Jawun started back in 2014 as a Jawun secondee to the West Kimberley region, supporting the Kimberley Land Council to commence the design of a leadership development program.

    Fergus comes to Jawun from a career in project management across construction, engineering and business transformation projects for both government and the private sector. Fergus brings a mix of organisational and business management skills to supplement experience in stakeholder engagement, facilitation and people development to the Regional Director role.

    Growing up in regional Australia on Yorta Yorta country, Fergus is passionate about opportunities to support Jawun regions and is motivated to support the local organisations and leadership to achieve the best possible outcomes for their community.

    Fergus has a passion for people development and the mentoring and coaching of others to help them be successful and achieve their best. This has included involvement in an engineering Indigenous internship program and tutoring for Indigenous high school students.

CASE STUDIES

Case studies show how Jawun secondees have achieved real results. If you are interested to learn more about Jawun's work in this region, click on the case studies below.

NAISDA

SUPPORTING CULTURAL GROUNDED TRAINING FOR INDIGENOUS ARTISTS

SUPPORTING THE GLEN DRUG AND ALCOHOL REHABILITIATION CENTRE

PEER TO PEER KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AT DARKINJUNG

DARKINJUNG LOCAL ABORIGINAL LAND COUNCIL

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