|
Aurukun youth charting new waters
Issue 45 - 26 Nov 2003
NORTH QUEENSLAND: More than three dozen Aboriginal teenagers from Aurukun have signed up for a boat building project that will launch a charter business operated by the young people of the remote Cape York community.
The project was conceived by Aurukun Shire youth development officer, Allan Teer, and partly supported by the Community Development Employment Projects scheme (CDEP), which is administered by ATSIC.
Nine young Aboriginal men travelled to Brisbane to work with boatbuilder Peter Cavaliere of New Wave Catamarans to build a 12 metre aluminium cat for Aurukun.
The vessel was cut down the middle and loaded onto two trucks and has just completed the long, rough, road journey north, more than 3,000 kilometres from Brisbane to Aurukun.
Designer Paul Birgan says the big aluminium boat will be reassembled with the help of New Wave Catamarans tradesmen, fully fitted out by Aurukun young people, and launched as the first charter boat of a fleet that could eventually number up to four.
Powered by two 25hp four stroke outboard motors, the boat will be fully equipped to carry up to eight people on fishing and touring holidays on Aurukun’s waterways.
It is hoped the charter operation will provide work opportunities for Aurukun’s young people, who will learn to run the business, handling promotion, bookings, catering, and boat maintenance.
The nine teenagers involved in building the cat have already learned valuable skills in the design and fabrication of high quality aluminium boats.
The catamaran was transported by Bowyer Transport of Mareeba.
• CAPTION: Some of the youth from Aurukun and their supervisors, who will be involved in the construction of a catamaran which will be used in a charter boat operation.
 
|