One university and four secondary scholarships have been awarded by the Department of Transport and Main Roads as part of its 2025 Peninsula Developmental Road Indigenous Scholarship Program. Photo: Supplied.
Five students with a connection to the Peninsula Developmental Road (PDR) and Cape York have been given a helping hand to further their education through a State Government scholarship program.
The Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR) has announced the recipients of its 2025 PDR Indigenous Scholarship Program, with one tertiary and four secondary scholarships awarded.
The scholarships are part of the Cape York Region Package (CYRP) stage two project and are open to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students with a traditional or historical connection to the PDR and the region.
The tertiary scholarship is worth $40,000, while the four secondary scholarship recipients each received $2,250.
University student Ngailu Thompson, who is currently studying a Bachelor of Construction Management and Quantity Surveying at the Queensland University of Technology and who has a connection to the Northern Peninsula Area (NPA), won the tertiary scholarship and said he planned to return to community to open a construction company incorporating traditional knowledge.
“Education is important to me – it’s been embedded in me since I was young,” he said.
“I grew up with a single mum and I have watched her do a full uni degree while she was doing full-time work; I’ve seen my grandmother go through and be the first person in our family to complete uni and become a teacher.
“When I finish uni, I eventually want to start my own business and go back to the Torres Strait and NPA area and supply jobs and cater for those people up there.
“The scholarship will help me immensely; I have a single mum, I’m living away from home [and] it will definitely help with my HECS debt … and getting my life rolling after uni.”
TMR Far North district director Darryl Jones praised the standard of applications for the 2025 scholarships.
“The scholarship program is an integral part of our commitment to the Traditional Owners of Cape York to provide employment, training and education opportunities under the CYRP stage two Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA),” he said.
“The calibre of scholarship recipients this year has been exceptional, with young people pursuing careers as varied as nursing through to aerospace engineering and construction.”
Mr Thompson said he was proud to receive the scholarship and planned to use the funding to become a strong role model for other Indigenous students on the Cape.
“We need more educated Indigenous leaders in the communities, so we can ultimately help our people and help ourselves, because if we don’t do it, no one’s going to do it for us,” he said.
