A Top End Indigenous construction company, Jawoyn Contracting, has ceased trading, leaving employees jobless and key projects—including work in remote Aboriginal homelands, air force bases, and bombing ranges—in limbo. Despite the setback, there is hope the business can be salvaged.
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00:00Close of business at the Catherine Headquarters of Jarwin Contracting, where 18 employees
00:07have been made redundant.
00:08Well, I feel gutted because some of the employees that joined in with Jarwin Contracting are
00:16my young cousins, young brothers, and it was a sense of belonging for them.
00:24And the rust kind of deteriorating into the walls.
00:28Joshua Hunter is a senior Jarwin traditional owner who lives on the Aboriginal homeland
00:32of Warranbun near Edith Falls.
00:34You know, we haven't had a bin run for over two weeks, I guess because of the shutdown.
00:40The Jarwin Association, which owns Jarwin Contracting, says it will find a way to keep
00:44its contracts to maintain its own homelands.
00:47But it's the more ambitious projects that will come to a halt for now.
00:50In recent years, Jarwin Contracting had grown into a major civil works company that was
00:55winning big government projects.
00:57Among them, housing projects in communities like Barunga, Woogala and Munyaluk, the slashing
01:02of the Air Force's massive Delamere bombing range, and contributing to joint US-Australian
01:08upgrades to RAF Base Tindal.
01:10In a statement, the Jarwin Association cited the poor financial performance of the business
01:15and said, these decisions have not been taken lightly, and the Jarwin Association acknowledges
01:20the impact that redundancies have on individuals and families.
01:23I see some good workers that I guess just got on the short end of the stick, and it's
01:30unfortunate they no longer have jobs.
01:33The NT government says it's reviewing projects that were on Jarwin Contracting's books, while
01:38the association says the business has not been fully disbanded, with its potential future
01:43under review by the board.