Albany Aboriginal Corporation HQ Albany Noongar Centre to be repaired with $200k from Rebecca Stephens promise

A community centre that has served as the hub for multiple Indigenous groups for more than half a century will receive a facelift under a re-elected Labor MP. Albany MLA Rebecca Stephens has pledged $200,000 to refurbish the “well-loved” headquarters of the Albany Aboriginal Corporation, promising to repair and address the immediate maintenance needs of the site if secured a second term. Known as the Albany Noongar Centre, the money will be used for roof repairs, floor finishes, refurbishment of the kitchen and wet area, glazing, external masonry, changerooms, painting, plumbing, pavements and lighting. Ms Stephens said the funding would bring the Albany “legacy site” back to life for long-term future use. “The Albany Noongar Centre is an important site for the Menang Noongar people, specifically in relation to conducting cultural business and meetings, supporting community members in need, providing meals, offering faith-based services and supporting Aboriginal family-run businesses,” she said. “I’m proud to be delivering this funding to re-energise this important complex in Albany.” AAC board chair and Menang Noongar Elder Lester Coyne said the centre was a “rotating door” of different groups, with its well-used status starting to show. “It’s about 50 years old this place and it’s never received any major upgrades — we obviously look after the inside and keep it tidy, but lot of functions happen here so progressively that’s where the damage is done, so we need our facilities upgraded,” he said. “We want to make it more applicable to the general public. “It’s a big shared concept space with Government agencies, Federal, State and local government groups that use it, so we want to make it a contribution to the community.” Kurrah Mia director Vernice Gillies, whose cultural tour guides also operate out of the centre, said she hoped the upgrades would encourage schools to send their students to the site, rather than sending the guides to the schools. “There’s so much around here — there’s bush walks, bush food, bush medicine and we have the space, but that upgrade is going to be so much better,” she said. “It’s going to cause a lot of joy.”