Davenport Community Council still being funded despite ‘not operating’ in town
An SA council which has not held an AGM since 2022 is receiving millions of dollars in ongoing funding – having not even opened its cobweb, graffiti-covered council offices for at least 14 months.
SA News
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A South Australian council is receiving millions of dollars in ongoing taxpayer funding grants for services that it is not delivering – but reportedly hasn’t turned up to its cobweb and graffiti-covered chambers for at least 14 months.
The Aboriginal Lands Trust (ALT) has claimed that Davenport Community Council (DCC) has not delivered some of its key programs and services, despite receiving $2m in ongoing federal funding since 2021.
The money was meant to fund a youth centre, playgroup and school holiday program, to be held in a building that sits empty and decrepit.
Elders say that they have continually reported the council to the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), but the agency responded by increasing funding levels this year and providing a further $100,000 in new grants to the council from February to June.
However, locals said the council had not entered any of its offices since at least October last year and no one had even picked up the keys from the former managers.
The Advertiser visited Davenport, on the outskirts of Port Augusta, last week and found a town in near anarchy, with rubbish strewn everywhere, piles of old mattresses on streets, the football oval overgrown, and council maintenance sheds crumbling and devoid of equipment.
The Sunday Mail reported that the town was near lawless and was being terrorised by a ruthless youth gang.
Emaciated children aged as young as eight were terrorising elders, who said that the youngsters “never, ever go to school”.
In September 2021, the NIAA gave the council $1m in funds to run its Tji Tji Wiru school attendance program from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2024. This grant was reassessed and value increased by NIAA in February.
In March 2021, the NIAA also gave the council $915,000 for a “Complex Needs and Vulnerable Persons Program” – effective from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025 – to support residents’ “physical, emotional and social wellbeing”.
When the near $2m funding was provided to the council, the town was not even being managed by it, as the ALT had taken control of management in July 2020, following a petition by local residents. Control was given back to DCC in October 2023.
Elder Malcolm McKenzie claimed that the Tji Tji Wiru youth centre, located in the council chambers – which The Advertiser found to be badly vandalised, its doors covered in dusty cobwebs and its interior housing stray cats – had not been operating at all for several years, as youths in the town were not attending school and forming violent gangs.
An ALT presiding member, Darrien Bromley, said that it was “a basic licence system … but the DCC elected not co-operate with this system or to run these programs in Davenport”.
The ALT confirmed it had not received any of the funding given to council.
In March 2023, the DCC said the ALT had “banned the council” from running its school attendance program.
However, Mr Bromley said “at no time did the ALT refuse DCC from continuing their operations or services”. He said that all council offices were repaired and refurbished when they returned community control to the council.
However, he claimed that since October 2023, the council had not reoccupied the buildings, carried out services in the community or kept the buildings secure.
Mr Bromley said that the council had not even come back to pick up the keys from ALT and had stopped communicating.
However, since this time, the NIAA had continued to give new grant money to the council. Since October 2023, government documents show the NIAA has had both its $1m and $915,000 grants reviewed and increased in value.
The documents also show that NIAA funded the council for three new grants in May 2024, including $71,500 for a “complex and vulnerable needs program replacement vehicle”, $24,000 for an “Indigenous Arts and Culture” project and a further $11,000 for residents’ “physical, emotional and social wellbeing”.
The council has not held an AGM since 2022 and has not filed any financial statements since early-2023. Its last published report on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission website for the 2021-22 financial year indicated it had received $671,000 in revenue, with $473,000 of that money used for “employee benefit expenses”.
Independent upper house MP Frank Pangallo said the matter was “shambolic” and “outrageous”, and should be investigated.
The SA Attorney-General’s Department said the Corporate Affairs Commission “recently filed proceedings to wind up Davenport Community Council Inc as an incorporated association as a result of breaches of the Associations Incorporation Act”.
“The state government currently provides total funding of $70,400 to the DCC for administration costs,” it said.
The NIAA said any allegations of non-delivery were taken seriously, but said in a statement “at this stage there are no impacts on service delivery, and that DCC continues to provide contracted services to residents”. The council was contacted for comment but did not respond.
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