Secondary principal Kelly Dorries and principal Dan Tonon with Western Cape College school captains Angelica Dialogo, Georgia Cooper, Oliver Campbell and Corey Anderson on day one of the 2025 Western Cape Futures Symposium. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
As western Cape York’s future was put under the microscope at last week’s symposium, some of Weipa’s school captains are urging community leaders to ensure the region’s next generation has a seat at the planning table.
Western Cape College (WCC) school captains Oliver Campbell, Corey Anderson, Angelica Dialogo and Georgia Cooper took to the lectern in front of more than 250 delegates on day one of the 2025 Western Cape Futures Symposium to talk about growing up and being educated in Weipa, as well as their aspirations for both their careers and the place they call home.
After their presentation, Cape York Weekly caught up with the WCC leadership quartet to find out how they would like to be involved in planning for the coming decades on western Cape York, and why they believed it was critical young voices were heard.
“I think it’s important for us to speak, because we’re students, and we want to see a future that we can lead into and go from there – build our workforce and build all of our peers’ workforce as well,” Mr Anderson said.
Mr Campbell identified the region’s significant scope for growth and said school-aged members of the community needed to be included in the sustainability conversation for it to be successful.
“There’s lots of opportunities in Weipa and it’s a growing community, and it feels like it’s a missed opportunity not to grow with the community,” he said.
Ms Cooper flagged additional educational opportunities as a key element of western Cape York’s sustainability and economic diversity framework.
“I’d like to see better education and opportunities for the children at the school, and have the same opportunities for like sports and like extra ATAR subjects (as metropolitan schools),” she said.
Having the opportunity to stand on stage and share their experiences and vision of Weipa’s students, as well as their day one attendance at the symposium, allowed the school captains to better convey their goals to delegates, according to Ms Dialogo.
“Being included in the symposium by Jaime (Gane) gives us a chance to be heard and [explain] what we actually want for the future, and what we need,” she said.
Principal Dan Tonon said he was buoyed by education’s inclusion in the symposium program but added a greater conversation needed to be had as the road map towards the future took shape.
“We’ve got a whole lot of presenters here are very keen to support local people,” he said.
“What we’re in the business of is ensuring our students are best prepared to enter that workforce, and so investment in opportunities for our kids to diversify the subject areas we offer is needed.
“We offer a huge breadth of subjects that I’m really proud of, but what I’m conscious of is, ‘are those skills and subject areas the best preparing our kids for that future on the western Cape?’”
Western Cape College’s school captains take to the stage outlining their experiences growing up in Weipa and their vision of the region’s future on day one of the 2025 Western Cape Futures Symposium. Photo: Cape York Weekly.
