Burnna yurrul Aboriginal Corporation (BYAC) was established in 1992 and was one of the first corporations to invest in Native Title business negotiations. BYAC ran social housing initiatives in Laverton, WA, to support the Aboriginal working families in the area and ran an Aboriginal hostel in Laverton to assist Aboriginal families travelling to obtain medical assistance in Perth. BYAC Contracting employed 400+ Aboriginal people working in the mining sector to provide sustainable funding for its social programs. Around 2015, BYAC Contracting went into voluntary liquidation due to the loss of a major mining contract and the failure to establish its training business. This put in jeopardy the social initiatives being run by BYAC.
The CEO of BYAC approached ServeGate seeking assistance in:
- Finalising the liquidation of BYAC Contracting
- Complying with Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) requirements for BYAC
- Re-starting the trading and training activities
- Keeping the social initiatives BYAC in a caretaker mode until new contracting revenues are established
ServeGate met with the CEO of BYAC, the liquidator, Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), Indigenous Land Council (ILC), ORIC, and the National Indigenous Australian Agency (NIAA) to develop a viable plan to get BYAC trading activities re-established.
Follow up meetings with potential customers (including Main Roads WA, WA Department of Planning, Lands & Housing, UGL Limited, Programmed, Department of Defence) and the Wirrpanda Indigenous Hub, Noongar Chamber of Commerce and various Indigenous businesses that can support BYAC and utilise its capabilities and facilities.
BYAC is now progressively meeting all its regulatory requirements and preparing to re-establish its trading activities.
Since it has been involved, ServeGate has been able to:
- Finalise the voluntary liquidation of BYAC Contracting.
- Help BYAC address ORIC’s requirements including:
- Compiling BYAC’s financial statements for FY2017
- Engaging auditors to audit these accounts
- Rebuild BYAC’s corporate register (work in progress)
- Established governance procedures to ensure matters raised by ORIC are addressed
- Establish sufficient trading activities in Kalamunda Road to be able to pay off BYAC’s creditors. Note: These trading activities are being conducted by ServeGate on behalf of BYAC until ORIC has given clearance for BYAC to trade again.
- Engage with potential customers that can add to the trading activities in BYAC’s Kalamunda Road property. This will be critical in ensuring that the title to the property is given back by ILC to BYAC.
- Assist Quinton Tucker to submit funding proposals for the rebuilding of the operational infrastructure at Kalamunda Road that will enable it to be engaged by the customers ServeGate has approached.
ServeGate continues to provide pro bono assistance to BYAC until it has been able to re-establish sustainable operating revenues to support its social initiatives.
