Signing of the Noongar Heritage Agreement with the Shire of Chittering in December 2025
Image: Mark Campbell, President, Shire of Chittering and Sharna Meinertz, Chair Yued Aboriginal Corporation (seated); Melinda Prinsloo, Chief Executive Officer, Shire of Chittering, and Rewi Lyall, Chief Executive Officer, Yued Aboriginal Corporation.
Media statement
With the prospect of taking control of vacant residential land over the coming year, but without capital to develop, the leadership of Yued Aboriginal Corporation is building funds to contribute to a future construction package.
Responsible for advocating for and pursuing Yued Nyoongar interests in the 26,000 sq. kilometre Yued Agreement Area, the corporation’s activities include:
incrementally taking control of, managing and developing land through the Noongar Land Estate of the Noongar Boodja Trust
working towards joint management arrangements for the conservation estate
implementing the Noongar Economic Participation Framework and Noongar Community Development Framework
Heritage protection services have made a solid first full-year contribution to delivery of a $1.48 million surplus for Yued Aboriginal Corporation for the 2025-2026 financial year. It is its second surplus in as many years and since its inception in 2021.
The corporation performs essential work helping to understand and assess the heritage values of artefacts, sites and landscapes under the terms of heritage protection agreements with companies and government agencies.
Backed by $2 million funding from the Noongar Boodja Trust and with successful grant applications supporting a range of activities from rangers through to property acquisition and corporate capacity building, the corporation has grown revenue from $2.8 million in FY25 to $7.2 million in FY26.
Diving into these headline results, the corporation’s performance includes:
$2.6 million salaries for 181 First Peoples employees, the significant majority being Yued Nyoongar employees, 76% of the corporation’s salary bill.
Leveraging NBT Operational Funds to obtain $2.60 for every $1 received from the trust
Acquisition of future office premises at 19 Dandaragan Street, Moora
$295,000 spent with local businesses in the Yued Agreement Area, 29% of all vendor spending
$399,000 procured from First Peoples-owned businesses, which constitutes 50% of all vendor spending
Comments attributable to Sharna Meinertz, Chairperson, Yued Aboriginal Corporation:
“Yued AC is building savings today to build houses tomorrow.
“The Housing Strategy released earlier this week makes our members’ priorities clear: we need to be finding the funds to contribute, with land, to strategic partnerships that will deliver a construction pipeline.
“It is critical we bring as much as we can to the table to ensure we have the strongest possible position in those partnerships.”
Comments attributable to Rewi Lyall, Chief Executive Officer, Yued Aboriginal Corporation:
“We are pleased to be able to make such a strong contribution to employment outcomes for Yued Nyoongars, and hope to see this continue over years to come.
“Our increasing capacity to back in First Peoples’ businesses, especially Nyoongar businesses, and to contribute to local economies is also satisfying.
“Heritage services will not always be as in demand as they have been. We cannot rely on them as a long-term revenue source.
“We have to take this year’s results and bank them as a downpayment on the improved housing outcomes Yued Nyoongars so desperately want.”
