Chairman EAA
Our mission to ignite dreams in young First Nations people is entirely due to the selfless work of our volunteers and the generous support of our partner organisations and individuals. The results are tangible and visible in our alumni’s career successes – and shine from the faces of our students during their graduations. For almost three decades, Engineering Aid Australia has been inspiring, introducing, and supporting young people at the very start of their journey towards a career.
Building on Jeff Dobell’s vision, our community now includes hundreds of past students who travelled to our schools in Sydney and Perth and went on to make more informed and empowered choices for their futures. Many of them return to inspire the next generation. We continue to gratefully rely on an expanding and loyal cohort of partners, who co-design, volunteer their time, and provide the financial wind beneath our wings. I look forward to continuing to engage with many friends and colleagues in our Engineering Aid Australia community, and to meeting our new partners.
This year we have welcomed our new CEO, Arimaya Yates, and we are looking forward to launching our first Adelaide residential Indigenous Australian Engineering School, in November, with Flinders University. Engineering Aid Australia continues to grow, thrive and deliver.
The late Jeff Dobell (1939-2010) had a vision of nation building, community by community, with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students becoming engineers to shape their future. Click here to read the obituary that was published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
Since the inception of its IAES Program in 1996, Engineering Aid Australia has teamed with Universities to introduce Indigenous High School students to the Engineering profession.
EEA also seeks to assist Indigenous young Australians who attend an IAES by:
This pilanthropic program is now championed by EEA’s Patron, His Excellency General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd.), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia and supported by industry leaders, corporations, charitable trusts and private donors.
“Across Australia we are united in our love, respect and grieving for one of the greatest Australians of our lifetime, Robert James Lee Hawke, who has passed away at the age of 89. The former Prime Minister died peacefully at home with his wife, Blanche D’Alpuget and other family by his side. He expressed no fear of death and in his last days turned his words to the political cause of equality in the country he loved so dearly.
Mr. Hawke spoke often of his huge satisfaction and sense of responsibility in encouraging young Indigenous people to become “nation builders”.
The students, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders from around the land, responded to his authenticity and the keen way he listened to their aspirations. In the words of one of New South Wales’ first Aboriginal engineers, Ben Lange, “Forever, our Uncle Bob”. In expressing his love of all Australians, Bob Hawke was in return loved by so many.”
His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of Australia, becomes our patron, following the passing of our former patron, The Hon. Bob Hawke, AC.
I am delighted to become Patron of Engineering Aid Australia. For over 20 years, Engineering Aid Australia has, quite literally, been “building futures”.
By helping Indigenous high school students, particularly those with an aptitude for maths and science, to complete high school, progress to university and into engineering careers they support not just the individual, but also the broader community and, ultimately, all of Australia.
Engineering Aid Australia’s Indigenous Australian Engineering School (IAES) Program helps young Indigenous people achieve their potential and, in doing so, our nation to reach its.
I look forward to working with the organisation’s volunteer directors and management team, its supporters, including sponsors from the engineering, mining, construction and infrastructure sectors, and the wonderful young people participating in the program.
David Harding
Chair
Arimaya Yates
CEO
Anne Vans-Colina
Public Relations
Larissa Andrews
Annabel Castledine
Kathy Baker
Billie-Grace Dunk
Leon Oriti
Kevin Hopkins
Samara El-Kazzi
Financial Administrator
Elaine Pye
Publications
Tracey Dennis
Greg Steele
Christina Bacchiella
Business Operations Manager
Engineering Aid Australia acknowledges all traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognises their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respect to them and their cultures and Elders past and present.”
