Armidale Regional Council signed a memorandum of understanding this morning that gave the grazing licence for the Dumaresq Dam recreation area to Backtack for a period of five years.
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Founder and CEO of Backtrack Bernie Shakeshaft described Backtrack’s 13-year-old relationship with council as a terrific one.
“We’re here today to sign a partnership to take over the lease of the nature reserve so, it’s about a 500 acre block that needs a bit of work on fencing, weed and feral animal control, and some bits and pieces like that,” Bernie said.
“This is just brilliant. We see this as a 500 acre classroom.
“If these kids are not good in school, then what we’ve been very good at doing over the years is just changing the classroom environment.”
In many respects this this the boy's backyard.
- Bernie Shakeshaft
Bernie said Backtrack had a residential next door to the dam.
“They spend a lot of time down here in canoes and fishing and running around, which is really good, but yeah, they’re really looking forward to this.
“The weeds boys were out here this morning and the boys were going, ‘What? What’s serrated tussock?’, and seeing how they did it with drones. So, there are some extraordinary training opportunities out here as well.”
Backtrack’s social enterprise business development manager Marcus Watson said they hoped to get up to 35 young guys employed over the next two-years.
“I’ve been working recently on a program called the Youth Employment Innovation Challenge, which is funded under the NSW Government,” he said.
“We like to do things hands-on and in the field. Council has asked us to put in a plan of management and we’ll put a training plan alongside that, and take every task we’ve got to do and use it to improve a young person’s employability.”
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Armidale Regional Council CEO Susan Law said council had entered into an overarching memorandum of understanding about nine months ago.
“Backtrack were to manage the trails and bridges and it has been a very positive relationship,” she said.
“They have doen an excellent job. There have been no problems what-so-ever, and council is very pleased about that because we get the work done and also get to continue to support Backtrack