Desert Knowledge Australia

Description

The Desert Knowl­edge Precinct is a 73-hectare prop­er­ty, which sits on Arrernte bush­land, 9 kilo­me­tres south of the Alice Springs town cen­tre. It was estab­lished in 2006, and its man­age­ment is under­pinned by an Indige­nous Land Use Agree­ment (ILUA). DKA is the land­lord of the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct, and is respon­si­ble for its man­age­ment and development.

Locat­ed on the out­skirts of Mparn­twe (Alice Springs), the Precinct’s loca­tion is sig­nif­i­cant. It occu­pies the space where, in the past, trav­el­ling Abo­rig­i­nal groups or mes­sen­gers would stop and light smoke sig­nals as a way of request­ing pas­sage through Heav­it­ree Gap (Ntaripe). It was here that Elders or oth­er group mem­bers from Mparn­twe would meet the trav­ellers and hear their sto­ries. The Precinct embod­ies the essence of the land on which it stands, pro­mot­ing knowl­edge shar­ing in a place where every­one is wel­come. We work with the peo­ple, com­mu­ni­ties and organ­i­sa­tions of Cen­tral Aus­tralia to con­nect peo­ple, knowl­edge, and opportunities.

Desert Knowl­edge Aus­tralia (DKA) is a statu­to­ry cor­po­ra­tion of the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry, estab­lished in 2003 to man­age the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct in part­ner­ship with the Desert Peo­ple’s Cen­tre, and under an Indige­nous Land Use Agree­ment with native title hold­ers, Lhere Arte­pe Abo­rig­i­nal Corporation.

DKA facil­i­tates the devel­op­ment of edu­ca­tion­al, employ­ment and enter­prise path­ways, arid zone-focused research and tech­no­log­i­cal progress rel­e­vant to the well­be­ing, resilience and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of desert com­mu­ni­ties, both with­in Aus­tralia and around the World.

DKA acts as Man­ag­er of the Desert Knowl­edge Precinct and its pri­ma­ry oper­a­tions, and ful­fils the respon­si­bil­i­ty of achiev­ing the aspi­ra­tions of the DKA Board via its Strate­gic Plans, includ­ing fos­ter­ing flag­ship projects, such as Codes 4 Life, Alice Springs Future Grid, and Intyal­heme Cen­tre for Future Ener­gy.

In addi­tion to the organ­i­sa­tions locat­ed onsite, the Precinct also hous­es the largest mul­ti-tech­nol­o­gy solar demon­stra­tion facil­i­ty in the world, the famed DKA Solar Cen­tre, which sup­plies approx­i­mate­ly 40% of the pow­er con­sumed onsite each year.