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Nine years ago, Sean Gordon
became CEO of Darkinjung Local
Aboriginal Land Council in Wyong,
New South Wales. The largest
private landholder on the Central
Coast, with direct accountability to
its members and the community,
Darkinjung seeks to effectively
manage property assets to provide
direct and tangible benefits to
Indigenous people.
The organisation had sold a parcel
of land to a major developer for
tens of millions of dollars but was
in administration. Funds were
held in external entities, and Sean
could see that a structured, well-
governed organisation needed to
be built from scratch.
Under Sean’s leadership,
Darkinjung strategically
developed land assets, housing
and employment programs,
and successful corporate
partnerships to become an
effective organisation living up to
its mandate. It was supported by
over 50 Jawun secondees working
on project briefs ranging from
business cases for commercial
developments to human resources
and work health and safety
reviews.
Crucially, Sean has used
connections with corporate
partners, made through Jawun’s
network, to bring real returns
for community. In 2014, James
Corbett, Commonwealth Bank’s
regional general manager
responsible for branches in
New South Wales and the ACT,
went on a Jawun Executive Visit
to the Central Coast. He met
Sean at Darkinjung, where
12 Commonwealth Bank employees
have completed secondments
since 2012. They agreed to work
together to get Indigenous
trainees into Commonwealth Bank
branches on the Central Coast,
in what became a feature of the
bank’s Reconciliation Action
Plan
. 51In 2017, seven Indigenous
school-based trainees and four
full-time trainees were working in
Commonwealth Bank branches in
Darkinjung Country. A ‘technology
traineeship’ pilot is also underway,
with five Indigenous trainees
recruited through Darkinjung
working in the bank’s head office
IT department but remotely, from
their communities. Sean explains:
We’ve managed to
get a trainee in every
Commonwealth Bank
outlet on the Central Coast,
and Darkinjung led the
recruitment process. That
worked extremely well and
we’ve now got some back-
end positions in IT in local
branches too, ones that
would normally be done in
Sydney are now being done
by Aboriginal trainees here
Sean Gordon, Darkinjung Local
Aboriginal Land Council—
collaborating for community
CASE STUDY
Sean Gordon at Darkinjung Barker College
66 JAWUN
2017 LEARNINGS AND INSIGHTS