100% aboriginal owned and operated
Wirrigan Business Services is 100% Aboriginal-Owned and was established to help public and private sector organisations support Indigenous employment programs through leveraging their procurement spend for good.
We believe that every individual deserves the opportunity to earn a living. We support programs that help Indigenous Australians overcome social, mental and physical barriers in order to access and maintain employment.
founded with a purpose in mind
Not everyone has the same head start in life and some people face more challenges than others. Our goal is to support Indigenous Australians facing difficulties get back into the workforce.
We believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to get a job and operate at their highest potential.
Our leadership team
The Wirrigan Business Services leadership team bring extensive experience across a range of service categories and industries.
John McNamara
FOUNDER - WIRRIGAN GROUP
John McNamara is the founder and managing director of The Wirrigan Group of companies.
John is a Wiradjuri man from Western NSW with over 38 years’ experience in Aboriginal employment and economic development overseeing Aboriginal employment initiatives in both the private and public sector. John has developed and implemented Aboriginal employment strategies with many of Australia’s leading companies, both privately owned and publicly listed.
The Wirrigan Group is Aboriginal owned and operated and offers a range of recruitment, consultancy and labour hire services.
John has established Wirrigan Business Services to support a greater purpose. One that supports programs that help Indigenous Australians overcome social, mental and physical barriers to employment.
Colin Kerr
General Manager - Wirrigan business services
Colin Kerr is the General Manager of Wirrigan Business Services.
Colin has over 25 years of experience in helping businesses to achieve their procurement objectives. More recently, Colin has worked extensively with his customers and their supply chains to deliver socially responsible outcomes.
In particular, Colin has been focused on delivering outcomes in the following areas:
- Procurement with Indigenous owned suppliers
- Procurement with social enterprises
- Environmentally friendly products and services
- Sustainable procurement solutions
Colin is proud to be a part of the Wirrigan Business Services and its mission to support programs that help Indigenous Australians overcome social, mental and physical barriers to employment.
Wirrigan, the rainmaker – an Aboriginal Dream time story
Once upon a time in the Dream time, the country was having a long drought. The plants and animals were dying and the rivers were drying up.
Without water, no food could grow and the people were starving. The people grumbled to Wirrigan, the rainmaker.
Wirrigan went to the waterhole in the creek each day and poked a stick in it, but still no rain fell.
On the third day, he left his stick in the water hole.
Near the waterhole was a large open shelter called a bough shed. Its roof and sides were made of branches.
The next day, he asked the people to use bark and material from the termite mounds to make huts raised above the ground.
He took the people to the waterhole and he jumped in. Then he asked the people to jump in too.
The young men laughed because they did not believe he could make rain. They threw him in the waterhole three times until he was very cold.
Everyone left the creek.
That night when everyone was asleep in the bough shed, Wirrigan and the old people walked around it many times, carrying their belongings.
Soon, a large, black cloud appeared.
Wirrigan woke everyone up and told them to take shelter in the raised bark huts.
The rain began to fall and lasted for several days. When the rain stopped, the land was green again and food had begun to grow.
The people celebrated by holding a corroboree, but Wirrigan was not happy because he knew that many of the people had doubted him.
To demonstrate his power, he took everyone to a very dry plain. He made a huge torrent of rain fall. It filled the whole plain with water.
However, it did not rain anywhere else.
He told the young men to fish in the water, but they still did not believe in his power. How could there be fish in the water when it was just rainwater?
Finally, they threw their nets into the water and pulled out many different kinds of fish.
No-one doubted Wirrigan again. And the great plain filled with water became known as Corcoran Lake.
The Wirrigan Group
Wirrigan Business Services is part of the Wirrigan Group. The Wirrigan Group are Aboriginal owned and operated, with close to 40 years of Aboriginal employment experience within the private and public sectors. The Wirrigan Group of companies offer a range of recruitment, consultancy and labour hire services. The Wirrigan Group are Supply Nation Certified, NSWICC Assured and a FACCI Affiliate.