“The Rock That Was Not Moving” – Stability, Consistency the Key to Dala’s Success

10 Years Together – Original Dala Yooro staff Belinda Lobley, Catherine Bishop, Natasha Walker and Bernardita Ashlin. Photo: Jake Lynch/GEGAC

Although GEGAC has been very fortunate to have had a number of leaders crucial to the success of Dala Yooro, there are four team members there today who were there at the very beginning – Belinda Lobley, Catherine Bishop, Bernardita Ashlin and Natasha Walker.

They have been a near constant presence in the lives of Dala Yooro children, and the families that entrusted their Boorai to our care.

Belinda and Natasha (Tash) were GEGAC staff that helped run the original kinder next door at Neighbourhood House, in partnership with Uniting.

Catherine and Bernardita were Uniting employees, who stayed with the kinder as it transitioned to GEGAC management, and then to its own building on GEGAC property in 2014.

But to our Boorai there was no distinction.

“The fact that these kids got used to seeing the same teachers, the same faces, day in and day out, became really important to the success of Dala Yooro,” says Belinda Lobley, now GEGAC’s Early Years Manager.

“They created a sense of stability and security for the children and families, that Dala was a safe space, that there was consistency here.”

There have been a number of other people who have played important roles at Dala Yooro over the years, including foundational manager Aunty May Pearce, Joshua Kenny, and long-serving team members Denise Fulton, Heidi Butler and Jess Wright.

Tash remembers those early days and reflects on how far Dala has come.

“We had very little,” she says. “All the 3s and 4s were in a single room, and we didn’t have very much in terms of toys, books, art supplies, things like that. You look around now, and this place has everything. We’ve grown so much.”

Catherine says the trust that local families now have in Dala wasn’t always there at the start.

“It took some time for us to earn that trust,” she says. “Community didn’t know us. But over the years they saw we weren’t going anywhere.”

“We were there every day for their kids. We were the rock that was not moving. And so now that trust is there.”