From the RDA Pilbara Chair - August 2025
- Nerida Kickett
- Aug 26
- 2 min read
It’s been a busy six weeks since our last newsletter, with the Developing Northern Australia (DNA) conference in Cairns being a clear highlight.
DNA always offers a great opportunity to engage with like-minded organisations around regional development. While every region (and the communities with it) are unique, there are common challenges and opportunities across northern Australia and it’s valuable to not only hear how they are being tackled elsewhere but share our Pilbara insights and learnings.
This year featured a record WA travelling contingent and Deputy Chair Ryley Heap, CEO Daiva Gillam and I were proud to represent the Pilbara alongside KDCCI, Pilbara Development Commission, City of Karratha, Pilbara Kimberley University Centres and the Shire of East Pilbara.

Closer to home, I was delighted to attend the annual Pilbara Regiment Ball in mid-August, along with Daiva and RDA Pilbara Committee Member Michelle Radley.
The Regiment are very much quiet achievers in our region. They don’t seek the limelight but the work they do patrolling more than 1.3 million square kilometres of often unforgiving terrain is completely irreplaceable.
The Ball is a rare public opportunity to reflect on and recognise the Pilbara Regiment’s important contribution.

Daiva is now three months into her tenure as CEO and continues to have a very positive impact while juggling a highly diverse workload.
It was great to see Daiva showcasing the Pilbara’s Designated Area Migration Agreement at the last week’s KDCCI Business Breakfast Briefing and helping launch Lindsay Rollo’s new book Iron Road, which covers the story of the Roebourne-Cossack-Point Samson tramway from 1880 to 1925.
RDA Pilbara is looking ahead to a productive September, including the Pilbara Chambers Alliance’s Pilbara to Parliament Showcase on the 16th. Our region’s five Chambers of Commerce do a great deal to grow local business and develop communities and we’re very pleased to support this initiative to ensure their voices are heard at a parliamentary level in Perth.
Later that week the RDA Pilbara Committee and staff will be in Perth for a two-day strategy workshop that includes our Annual General Meeting at 1.30pm on Thursday, September 18.
This will be the first opportunity for our Committee to gather in full, in person since expanding in July to cover a broader range of Pilbara communities.
These workshops have proved very useful for RDA Pilbara in the past and I look forward to mapping out work programs and initiatives to help drive sustainable and socially inclusive regional development into the future.