Ngurra Cultural Centre

Ngurra: The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct will be nationally significant in speaking to the central place that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples hold in Australia’s story.

It will comprise two key and distinct elements:

• A National Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Centre with new and expanded facilities for AIATSIS.
• A National Resting Place to house and care for repatriated limited provenance ancestral remains and any associated cultural material on their journey back to Country.

Ethos Urban assisted the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders (AIATSIS) c/o GHD Advisory with economic and planning services to prepare the business case for the project.

To demonstrate the merit of the project in the initial business case, Ethos Urban also undertook a Social, Political and Economic Assessment. Through detailed quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques, the report demonstrated the project will generate significant social, cultural and economic benefits well above construction and operations costs.

The Ngurra Cultural Precinct is a first of its kind in the world. As such, standard project evaluation techniques, such as a cost benefit analysis, were not appropriate. To overcome this challenged Ethos Urban prepared a project evaluation technique. This evaluation technique was signed off by the Commonwealth Treasury Department and enable Ethos Urban to demonstrate the direct and indirect social and economic benefits of the project were significantly greater than the project’s cost.

Ethos Urban was also appointed by AIATSIS as the competition advisor responsible for managing the design competition for Ngurra: The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Precinct.