Torres Strait Heavy Equipment Management and Training Program

For more than 15 years, the Remote Community Services Unit (RCSU) has successfully delivered a variety of workforce skilling projects in all of the 34 Indigenous community councils in Queensland.

These workforce skilling projects provide these communities with better transport and related infrastructure and also enhance the capabilities of these councils to maintain the assets.

In communities in the Torres Strait and Northern Peninsula Area (NPA) training is delivered using the Heavy Equipment Management and Training Program (HEMTP).

This program is known locally as the ‘Plant Pool’ because we use a pool of plant and equipment that is shared between the 17 communities in this area to deliver training projects. The program is a partnership arrangement between federal, state and local government organisations — Torres Strait Regional Authority, Department of Transport and Main Roads, Department of Infrastructure & Planning and supports the Torres Strait Island and Northern Peninsula Area Regional Councils.

Apart from providing the community with the skills to maintain and upgrade local infrastructure, the plant pool also provides significant cost savings in the delivery of projects to local councils by broadening the range of earthmoving equipment available to them.