Yalata EEW team completes training

By Lisa Rogers

Training was held at Scotdesco (Tjilkaba) Community from Monday 8th to Friday 12th November 2021.

On Monday afternoon Lisa and Lucas picked up the seven newly recruited Energy Education Workers (EEWs) from Yalata and drove them to the Scotdesco Training and Accommodation facility. Thanks to Fiona Moore, one of the new workers, who recruited a number of other community members for the role. We were happy to accept them, the more the merrier!

Everyone was very chatty in both of the vehicles travelling to Scotdesco. Lucas had the Warumpi Band playing and Lisa had country music on. Both vehicles were enjoying their own style of music and having general chit chat amongst themselves.

Once we had arrived at the Scotdesco everyone eagerly selected their accommodation rooms and not long after we had dinner. One of the many lovely meals to be provided over the next few days. Don’t get too squeamish about some of you reading this but we did have wombat as a snack one day! 

The EEWs were very happy to stay at Scotdesco, as many of them had family/friends living and working in this community.

The training commenced on Tuesday morning and was completed by Friday lunch time. In those few days the new EEWs learnt about but not limited to:

• Why was the paid power scheme being introduced? 
• All about their new role as EEW’s (everyone was very pleased about their hourly rate) 
• Climate change
• Electrical Appliance costs-
• Home Energy Efficiency
• Watts, kWh, costs, budgets

Friday was a buzz of excitement as everyone was looking forward to going back home to Yalata. Everyone was very surprised and happy to have their own presentation ceremony with photos and certificates received. 

On Friday it was also confirmed all their knowledge they had gained over the last few days was going to be put into action. As on Monday we were going to commence the house visits in Yalata Community.

Lucas, Nick and Lisa were looking forward to returning to Ceduna for the weekend so we could escape each other and view the ocean once again. No wonder we wanted to escape from each other as all up we spent 22 days together on this engagement exercise. Yes, we drove from Alice Springs in two vehicles. This was mainly due to the remoteness of Alice Springs to Yalata and of course Covid-19/ border closures.

As of today, when I write this blog for the newsletter, all the Yalata EEWs are looking forward to the next stage of the roll out. This will include smart meter training and house visits to let people know how to use the smart meter and pay for power. We are all hoping to commence these visits in Yalata and Oak Valley in early 2022.

Check out the photos below.