The Cherbourg Service Centre officially opened on 1 April 2022 and is the first digital service centre to operate in a remote Indigenous community.
The new service centre is an initiative of Advance Queensland’s Deadly Innovation Strategy (PDF, 2.5MB) with the aim of increasing economic opportunities and independence of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through greater involvement in the innovation economy.
We’ve worked hand-in-hand with the community to establish the centre to support the development of a local digital economy.
Located at the TAFE Queensland Nurunderi Campus in Cherbourg, the service centre is fully community owned and operated and will support training and employment in digital skills.
The service centre will employ 13 local people who will provide an IT support service to people living in regional and rural Queensland.
The first foundation customer for the service centre is Fujitsu who will direct all their password reset jobs to the Cherbourg Service Centre in the first instance. As staff get more training, the centre will take on more complex IT jobs for Fujitsu and assist them with banking, insurance and government services.
Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council Mayor Elvie Sandow said, “Cherbourg Council is proud to work with the Department of Tourism, Innovation and Sport’s Advance Queensland Deadly Innovation team, TAFE Queensland and Fujitsu to offer our people real opportunity and work.
“It’s really positive and we hope to expand the operation as soon as possible to employ more people. I sincerely thank the industry and the Queensland Government who have progressed the project so far. It’s very good when all stakeholders work well together to assist community.”
Along with Telstra upgrading Cherbourg’s internet bandwidth and mobile network, Telstra is keen to learn from Fujitsu’s experience and will explore opportunities to replicate the service centre model in other First Nation’s communities in Queensland.
Find out more about how we are delivering jobs and economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
