Nova Locations: Cafe 64

A NOVA EMPLOYMENT INITIATIVE

On Saturday 10th December 2005, NOVA Employment opened Cafe 64 in Walgett to provide an opportunity for people who have a disability, and reside in the Walgett Shire, experience paid work in a great environment.

Walgett is found 690kms North West of Sydney at the junction of the Barwon and Namoi rivers and the Kamilaroi and Castlereagh Highways. Walgett Shire covers an area of 22 000 kms²
Cafe 64 is an Australian Disability Enterprise Service (business service) that offers a supportive, challenging work environment that is tailored to individual aspirations, abilities and skills.

Through our business service – Café 64, we are building a long term success that will support people who have disabilities in the Shire to work in a rewarding and challenging environment.
Cafe 64 receives most of its funding from the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) and has the capacity to employ up to 17 people with a disability who are in receipt of the Disability Support Pension (DSP). The cafe like any other food service has to undergo regular health and safety inspections and comply with food standards.

Cafe 64 exists to provide two vital services to the community, the first is employment for people with disability and the other a comfortable place for people to come in, sit down and have a great meal.

One of the most important roles of Cafe 64 is the way it breaks down barriers. The Cafe employs indigenous and non indigenous staff, young and more mature employees, disabled and able bodied workers. Regular customers and community members have become more familiar with disability and travellers to the area seem to enjoy not only the great coffee and food but the service and staff.

All staff has completed a Certificate I and Certificate II in Hospitality (Kitchen Operations) a Certificate I in Food preparation and their Barista Coffee making certificates with the local TAFE.
Cafe 64 also provides work experience opportunities for high school students with disability. This helps them to complete their education and have a clearer career pathway for their future.
Cafe 64 provides a means for local aboriginal artists to display and sell their art.

The indigenous art of the Walgett region differs greatly from other areas and does not include the dot technique found amongst Indigenous art elsewhere. The cafes' links with the Indigenous Elders and local people provide a vital service to help preserve local heritage.

Winners!!!
On Saturday the 7th of October, 2006, Walgett Sporting Club hosted the formal dinner for Nominees of the Walgett Shire Regional Business Award.

Winners!!!
In 2007 NOVA's Cafe 64 has won the 'Best Community Organisation Award'.
These awards are an important step in recognising the outstanding efforts of business within the region in areas such as customer service, presentation, product range and diversity. The nominees are judged on these areas by a panel of members from the Orana Area Consultative Committee, (Orana ACC).

Winners!!!
Cafe 64 has been awarded the Walgett Shire Business of the Year award in 2008.
At the recent National Diversity at Work awards, Cafe 64 was placed runner-up for the Employment of Indigenous Australians award.
Cafe 64 also received the award for Government Supported Enterprise. This was possible due to the commitment and enthusiasm of the staff at Cafe 64. The managers Melissa White, Don Lillyman and Taher Hessam along with staff have worked extremely hard to ensure that the cafe provides an atmosphere of comfort, great food and cleanliness for the Walgett community and most importantly, quality employment opportunities for people within the Walgett Shire with a disability.

NATIONAL CHAMPION BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
In 2009 at the National Businesses Awards, Cafe 64 was awarded first place for the best Regional Business in NSW / ACT and were also awarded National Champion Business of the year.
Our new Cafe 64 management team consists of Melissa White (Cafe Manager) and Pamela Richardson (Client and Promotional Manager). Melie and Pam have set a fast pace in bringing the cafe on – currently Cafe 64 is on 100% capacity (17 workers in various positions).

Would you like to join them?

If you have a disability and reside in the Walgett Shire we'll find a spot for you at Cafe 64. You'll learn new skills, be part of a great team and make a real contribution to the town

some people have said that they are worried about losing their pension or other benefits from taking up work. That's not the case - you won't be worse off because of working - you'll have more money.

More money, more skills, and more friends - you'll make more that great food at Cafe 64!

VISITORS:
FAMOUS CHEF visits Café 64

Mark Olive (aka the “Black Olive”) has been a chef for over twenty years - he became interested in cooking as a child, watching his mother and aunts.

He was born in Wollongong in New South Wales, but his people are the Bundjalung nation from the state's northern rivers region.

His interest in people and in the arts, has guided him through an amazingly varied career. He trained with a European chef and has worked in theatres, universities, and health centres, Jewish kitchens preparing kosher food, on film sets and in a la carte restaurants.

Mark was chef at Melbourne's indigenous restaurant, the Flaming Bull, and ran his own restaurant in Sydney for a time where he specialised in creating recipes using outback ingredients.

Today he cooks regularly for gatherings of hundreds of people at big corporate and public functions in Australia, bringing his signature blend of contemporary outback tastes to every occasion.

His previous television experience includes regular appearances as a celebrity chef on ABC TV's Message Stick program. In the midst of it all, Mark has also found the time to complete a BA in film and television, at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, and now looks forward to combining both his professions, cooking and filmmaking.

So what did Mark think of Café 64 – “The Coffee Rocks …”

SBS TV – LIVING BLACK
RAMAHN'S MUURDI PAAKI ROAD TRIP, PT 2: CAFE 64
Ramahn Allam (SBS TV – Journalist and camera man visited Cafe 64 on 01/04/2011) took a special coffee break on his road trip for Living Black.

After being treated to the beautiful sounds of Yuwalaraay / Gamilaraay at St. Joseph's Primary School, I headed across to the other side of Walgett.

When I say the other side of Walgett, I mean across the main street, the Castlereagh Highway: what locals simply call the ‘Golden Gate'. The Castlereagh runs straight through the middle of Walgett.

It's the line that, a few locals told me, only a generation or two ago was the ‘White Line'; an unofficial line of demarcation that separated people coming in from Gingie Mission to the town. I was informed that crossing that line could mean arrest or serious injury “back in the day”.

The unofficial ‘White Line' is no longer there, but while thoughts of segregation and racism ran through my head, so did a caffeine withdrawal headache that was pushing up from the back of my head to my frontal lobes.

I needed coffee. Fast. Not that instant gobshite where you can taste the aluminium as soon as soon as it hits the palate, and smell the burning of Amazonian rainforests when the steaming kettle water hits the pebbly granules. No. Espresso. Ground, filtered Arabica beans, mate.

The same locals who told me about the ‘White Line' also enthusiastically directed me to the imaginatively named Café 64 on the western side of the line at number 64 Wee Waa Street, Walgett.

As soon as I walked past the window-length fire-engine red Café 64 sign, and through the doors, the smell of the roasting Arabica hit my nostrils, telling my brain that I was close, which in turn made the saliva in my mouth start to foam.

I was greeted by Victor Ward, one of the baristas at the café, who cheerily to took my order and went about making me a strong long black.

Victor and I had a yarn, and I found out that he'd had started at the café when it first opened the premises about six years ago. Victor is just one of the more than fifty people with a disability Café 64 has trained, employed and given hope since it threw opens the doors for business in 2005.

I was also grateful to hear Kevin Sullivan tell me how he couldn't walk for six years due to his hips being worn out through shearing. He developed a drug and alcohol addiction, his marriage broke down, and he was at the end. Café 64 gave him a lifeline.

He went through 18 months of drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and despite going through numerous operations and still without full use of his lower body, turns up every time he can at Café 64 because: “We're not always okay.. We work as a family, we stay as a family, sometimes it's stressful, but we all stand beside each other.”

If I was to recount all the fantastic stories of strength of spirit, overcoming adversity, or simply battling against the odds that I was given the honour of hearing, not only would I begin to run out of clichés, but I still would not be adequately able to describe the beautiful people of Café 64.

So tune in for Episode Four this weekend and if you're ever out near the Golden Gate, drop in to Café 64. You won't be disappointed.

Staff at Nova Cafe 64

Charmaine Mara - Branch Manager

Melissa White - Cafe Manager

Nova Cafe 64 Contact Details:

64 Wee Waa Street
WALGETT NSW 2832

Ph: (02) 6828 3440
Fax: (02) 6828 3812
Email: click here