About Us | Camp Kulin

What is Camp Kulin

Established in 2013 and located on the WA Wheatbelt, approximately 283km south east of Perth, Camp Kulin is quickly gaining national and international recognition for its innovative program, the first of its kind we are aware of in Australia.

We currently work with over 1500 WA young people each year, who travel up to 25 hours each way to attend the program. Our volunteer team, consisting of over 200 volunteers from across the country aged 16-76 years of age donate over $500,000 of their time each year.The Camp Kulin program includes activities general camps open to any child in WA, scholarship camps for children affected by childhood trauma, corporate programming, school excursions and school camps.

While at camp, campers and camp counsellors learn essential life skills, such as leadership, respect, trust, self confidence, emotional regulation, perseverance, persistence, respect, anger management and communication skills.

The Shire of Kulin’s facilities – including the Freebairn Recreation Centre, Kulin Pool & Waterslide (biggest in regional Australia – 18m high and 182m long), Kulin Hostel, Community Hall, Tin Horse Highway and the many natural attractions the area has to offer – make it the perfect place to run camp and activity programs.

Custom built additions, including the first gaga dodge ball pit to our knowledge in Australia, giant human foosball, a sensory walk and low ropes elements add to the experience for our campers.

Parents, teachers and case workers have reported increased self esteem, self confidence and respect, better behaviour and increased school marks in children who have attended Camp Kulin.

Camp Kulin has been presented across America as part of a Department for Child Protection Churchill Fellowship our manager Tanya received via the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. This also gave Tanya the opportunity to work alongside the best researchers and programs of this kind in the world, and ensure that our program, evaluation tools and sustainability are world class.

The program has attracted the attention of Ministers at State and Federal level and has been spoken about in the Federal Senate, as well as winning numerous awards, including the National Award for Local Government, Premiers Award for Public Sector Excellence, Constable Care Child Safety Award and WA Children’s Week Award.

We look forward to our program continuing to grow, and making a difference to all the campers and camp counsellors we work with.

Tanya Dupagne

Camp Kulin Founder/Manager

Tanya has spent the past 15 years running camp and youth activity programs for at risk children in Australia, America, South Africa and Vietnam. She is one of the leaders in her field, and her programs have been recognised at State, National and International level.

Tanya has worked with over 130,000 children across the world. She is the founder of the Dance 4 Africa and Kwinana Children’s Choir programs, developed the Koorliny Arts Centre Boys & Girls Clubs, and in 2009, became the youngest female Councillor ever elected to the City of Kwinana Council. She was GM/CEO of charity Global Good Foundation for 2 years, leading large scale program expansion. She has travelled to 24 countries, and attends numerous events as a motivational/keynote speaker.

Tanya was the recipient of the 2012 WA Department for Child Protection Churchill Fellowship via the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, which allowed her to spend six weeks in America in 2013, researching programs aimed at stopping the generational cycle of domestic violence and related factors, working with industry leaders, and presenting the Camp Kulin program in Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and New Hampshire.

She founded Camp Kulin in 2013. The program has now grown to include general and scholarship camps for children from over 183 towns across WA, a leadership development program involving over 200 volunteers, corporate and school camps and mental health support/mentoring programs in three schools. Camp Kulin has received a number of awards including the Premier’s Award for Excellence in Public Sector Management and the National Awards for Local Government.

In 2019 she was awarded a Westpac Social Change Fellowship, which provided a personal development plan including a study tour to the USA to work with and research some of the best camps in the world, as well as undertaking Leadership Development & Coaching classes at Harvard University.

Tanya is the 2017 AgriFutures Australian and Western Australian Rural Woman of the Year and has won the Constable Care Child Safety Awards (Overall Winner & WA Child Safety Employee categories), Premier’s Active Citizenship Award, WA Children’s Awards, Act-Belong-Commit Awards, City of Kwinana Citizen of the Year, Martin Waudby Leadership Award and the Australia Council for the Arts SPARK Mentorship. She was named on the Power 30 Under 30 list for Australasia by the Apex Society in America for worldwide contribution to community service and awarded the Rotary Youth Leadership Award. She was a state finalist for Telstra Business Women’s Awards and national finalist for the NAB Women’s Leadership Awards. Tanya was named as one of Australia’s 100 most influential women by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac, one of Country Style Magazine’s Top 30 People in Regional Australia, one of the West Australian Newspaper’s 50 Rising Stars, has been listed on the Australian Associated Press Who’s Who of Australian Women list for the past two years and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Edith Cowan University in 2019 for her work in community development and early intervention.

Camp Kulin Camp Counsellors

The most important part of Camp Kulin is our volunteer team, because without the volunteers, our program couldn’t run! Our volunteers are extremely diverse – they are from a range of ethnic backgrounds, they are aged 16 to 76, they have a wide range of interests, and they come from all states of Australia, and even overseas, to take part in the program.

Our Camp Kulin team, whilst all individuals and unique personalities, also have some things in common – they are ready for a challenge, they have a great sense of humour, and they want to make a difference in the life of a child. Many of them have spent summers at camps in America, and are incorporating what they have learnt into our program.

The leadership team for each camp is carefully selected to ensure a cross section of ages and interests. Most have strong backgrounds of working with children, including teachers, social workers, youth workers and child care workers. Many of them hold special talents that they are able to share with our campers during camp – such as dancing, elite sports, circus skills, playing musical instruments and lots more!

All the Camp Kulin team undertake a training period before their time at camp. All camp counsellors over the age of 18 hold a Working With Children Check/Police Clearance.