Main Roads Western Australia booked about $300,000 of spending with a signage supplier as 'Aboriginal business expenditure' after the company passed into sole ownership and stopped being Indigenous-owned.

The supplier gave no formal notice it had changed hands. Main Roads found out about five months later, and is now removing the spend from its 2025-26 Aboriginal participation reporting.

Key points:

• Main Roads heralded Yungatha as its first Supply Nation registered Aboriginal business on a statewide signs panel
• The 51 per cent shareholder left in July 2025; the company gave no formal notice it had changed hands
• About $300,000 of spend this financial year was recorded as Aboriginal expenditure and is now being stripped out

Yungatha Pty Ltd, a Belmont road-signage company, joined Main Roads' State-wide Sign Supply Panel Contract in 2024 on a five-year term.

In its October 2024 newsletter, Main Roads WA said it was "proud to welcome" the business as the panel's fourth member and its "first Supply Nation registered Aboriginal business on the panel." The Supply Nation Registered logo ran beside the company's name. A Main Roads spokesperson said it has procured about $850,000 of signs and materials from Yungatha as part of the contract.

Company records held by ASIC show that Yungatha was registered as Perth Safety Products Pty Ltd in 2012 and renamed in October 2021. Dale Roberts held 51 per cent until 1 July 2025, when he ceased as a director and shareholder and Benjamin Morton took 100 per cent. Mr Morton is now sole director and shareholder, with Samuel James Morton as company secretary. Supply Nation registration as an Indigenous business requires at least 50 per cent Indigenous ownership.

Mr Morton confirmed to this publication that the company's Supply Nation registration has ended.

Yungatha "is not currently registered with Supply Nation and is not currently listed on the Indigenous Business Direct", he told National Indigenous Times.

The registration ended because, after the 1 July 2025 change, the company "was no longer majority Indigenous-owned or majority Indigenous-managed".

Main Roads said the supplier never formally advised it of ownership changes.

"Main Roads was not formally notified of the change of ownership," the spokesperson said. "This was discovered in general communications in December 2025." .

In that five month period, the company's work kept feeding Main Roads' Aboriginal procurement figures.

"A recent review identified that about $300,000 was spent with Yungatha under the State-wide Sign Supply Panel Contract after July 1, 2025, and was captured in Main Roads' Aboriginal business reporting system," a Main Roads spokesperson said. It will be removed before the 2025-26 Aboriginal participation figures are finalised.

Mr Morton said does not control Main Roads' reporting and supports the correction. He said the company "does not currently represent itself as an Aboriginal business, an Indigenous-owned business, an Indigenous-managed business, or as Supply Nation registered", and that any historic reference describing it that way "is outdated and should be corrected."

Yungatha, he said, "has not sought to mislead Main Roads, Supply Nation, any government agency, customer, or supplier".

The panel carries no Aboriginal-business requirement, and Yungatha keeps its place for the rest of the term. Main Roads said it would decide on a two-year extension closer to expiry, and has removed references to Yungatha being an Aboriginal business from its systems.

Supply Nation, which runs Indigenous-business verification for the Commonwealth, said registered businesses must show at least 50 per cent Indigenous ownership, that listings are audited regularly, and that ASIC alerts on changes in company structure "triggers an audit to assess compliance". It said it could not comment on individual businesses, and does not itself determine whether a person is Aboriginal, relying on documents issued by Aboriginal organisations under the three-part test of descent, self-identification and community acceptance.

Yungatha, meaning family, is a word from the Wajarri language of Yamatji Country, in the Mid-West region of Western Australia.