Storylines
Amazing stories that warm the soul and gladden the heart. Stories set in familiar places that feel like home. Stories about wonderful people doing incredible things. Stories bursting with community and human kindness.
Three years of partnering with the quiet achievers of the Hunter Region as they go about making the world a better place for all sorts of people in all sorts of ways has opened our eyes and made us proud to contribute to their successes.
It’s why we are so proud to bring you Storylines. We think you’ll be amazed by the stories you’ll read.
DIVERSITY
A resilient and sustainable society needs diversity to flourish. It’s why we’ve provided funding to establish Newcastle’s only Domestic Violence Resource Centre, as well as football programs for children with special needs. We also sponsor the Wandiyali Indigenous Surf Classic, and the Koori Knockout, one of this country’s biggest Indigenous sporting gatherings.
ECONOMIC
We’ve helped marginalised people shape their own destinies by helping them establish businesses from the ground up. And, as drought increasingly hits our region, we’ve become founding members of the Hunter Corporate Collaborative, which is helping provide drought relief to farmers in the Hunter Region.
EDUCATION
We’ve funded a world-first wellness program targeting fathers as agents of change to improve their daughters’ physical activity levels, sports skills and social and emotional wellbeing. In our portside schools we’ve supported musical performances and a science and engineering challenge, introduced healthy eating and basketball programs, provided books and tablet devices, and even upgraded a sports field.
ENVIRONMENT
We’ve planted more than 5000 trees, removed more than 150kg of rubbish from local waterways, and supported high-priority conservation projects in the Hunter River Estuary and surrounds. We’ve also helped reduce food waste, one of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
GENERAL COMMUNITY
We’re proud of the diversity of our city and its residents so our community support stretches the spectrum! Newcastle is internationally renowned for our iconic beach and surfing culture and we love being part of it by providing funding to six surf clubs. We’re also major sponsors of the biggest ANZAC Dawn Service outside Canberra, and we support many local festivals celebrating LGBTQI (PRIDE), Italian film, music, and Chinese and African cultures.
HEALTH
In an ideal world, access to health is available to everyone. We’re funding outreach mental health support for disadvantaged and homeless people, counselling services for troubled children and youth, and in-port missionary care for visiting seafarers. Our employees have also helped raise funds for a Child Life Therapist for childhood cancer patients at The John Hunter Children’s Hospital, and we’re helping upgrade two hospital wards for adolescent patients.
Port Waratah is committed to contributing towards the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 17 SDGs, and their related 169 quantitative targets, aim to stimulate action in five areas of critical importance: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership.
We contribute to addressing the challenges and targets identified in the SDGs in the context of our own business and operational environment. We have many strategies, systems, programmes and initiatives that align with the SDGs, and in 2017 we identified which SDGs are most closely aligned with our day-to-day operations. At that time, we mapped the SDGs against our business drivers, values, projects and targets.
We’ve now gone one step further and mapped some of our Community Investment and Partnership Programme against the SDGs. Case studies, representing just 10% of our total community support, demonstrate some of our indirect contribution towards achieving the global goals.
While community partnerships help deliver a sustainable future, they also provide immediate benefits to our communities. If you think you have a project, group or initiative that would fit our funding criteria we would love to hear from you. Check our Partnership Opportunities page to see if your application meets Port Waratah’s requirements and objectives.
