Shining a light on the regions: Cherbourg
Published on 11 August 2026
When procurement connects with community
Article by Shez Mussa, Manager of Business Development
Key takeaways
- A NAIDOC Week visit to Cherbourg became an unexpected lesson in what community really means.
- A conversation with Cherbourg CEO, Chatur Zala, revealed a shared heritage and a paradigm shift in perspective on culture.
- The visit re-framed procurement as work that is only as good as the outcomes it creates for the people and place it's meant to serve.
There's a particular kind of trip that stays with you longer than the drive home.
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council is about three hours north-west of Brisbane. Not exactly a long drive by Queensland standards, however, it is still far enough that you notice you've been somewhere. Senior Engagement Manager Liz Macfarlan, Libraries and ICT Category Manager Anne-Maree Hapgood, and I met the council team during NAIDOC Week celebrations in the centre of town. Some timing is better than planned.
This year's NAIDOC theme is "50 Years of Deadly", a recognition that for half a century, First Nations communities across Australia have shown up, year after year, to celebrate their cultures, their histories and their people. Not because it was easy, but because it mattered. Fifty years of saying: we are here, we have always been here, and our culture is worth celebrating.
On the day we arrived, the NAIDOC celebrations were in full swing. There was colour and noise, a drumming circle near the Ration Shed Museum, Wakka Wakka Dancers performing, a live band in the park, artwork by Elders and children from the community, and an energy that was extremely uplifting.
Most notably, Liz, Anne-Maree and I were made to feel welcome in a way that was genuine rather than ceremonial, which is a distinction worth making.
Procurement is not for the contract. It's not for the pre-qualified supplier Arrangement. It's not even for the signing off a purchase order on a Tuesday afternoon.
It is, however, for the park the kids play in after school. The community hall that gets used on weekends. The roads that connect people to services, to family, to each other. Procurement is the machinery behind those things - and machinery is only worth something if you understand what it's supposed to build.
The meeting itself was what you'd expect from any good council engagement: priorities, projects, timelines, a few challenges with no easy answers. What you don't always expect is to walk away with a clearer sense of what community actually means. Because here's the thing about visiting a community that has worked hard to hold itself together through circumstances most of us will never fully understand - it recalibrates your thinking about what procurement is actually for.
Spending a day in Cherbourg during NAIDOC Week has a way of making that point without needing to say it out loud. 50 Years of Deadly is about recognising the strength it has taken to get here - the Elders who held the line, the communities who kept showing up, the culture that refused to be quietly set aside. For those of us working in local government services, there's something in that worth sitting with. The councils we serve are custodians of places that mean something to people. The work we do in support of those communities should reflect that. That point landed a little closer to home than usual, as it turned out. In conversation with Cherbourg's CEO, Chatur Zala, we discovered that we both trace our roots to the Kachchh district in Gujarat, India. It's one of those small moments that catches you off guard in the best way. Here we were, two people who had ended up in very different parts of Queensland, meeting in a community built on the principle that where you come from matters, that culture is not a footnote to your identity but the foundation of it.
There's something quietly profound about that. Knowing where you come from doesn't diminish your pride in being Australian. If anything, it deepens it. Cherbourg understands that better than most. On the drive home, Liz, Anne-Maree and I headed down the highway with a lot to think about. That's usually how you know a visit was worth making.
Images courtesy of Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council
This is part of an ongoing series shining a light on the regions Local Buy serves across Queensland.