Home is where the mango tree is

Pictured: Gertrude Mimi

Gertrude Mimi has fond memories of a mango tree in the backyard when she was growing up in Napranum.

After years of moving around, she has put down roots but not just in any one of Napranum’s 13 new homes: Gertrude has returned to Waum Street — and her much-loved mango tree is still there.

“I cried when I found out I was going to live there again, and that my mango tree is still there,” Gertrude says.

“I’ve never had my own place. Now I have a place to call my own — just me and my kids on our own. My family is really happy for me.”

It’s a similar story in Doomadgee where Jennifer Sandy and her four kids have moved into a four-bedroom Department of Communities’ house.

“I was living with my parents for a long time. Now my children can sleep in separate bedrooms,” Jennifer says.

Jennifer and Gertrude are among 24 families who have been handed keys to new or renovated properties as part of the Remote Indigenous Land and Infrastructure Program Office’s work in 34 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities.

A year since its establishment, the Program Office’s staff have been busy visiting each community, consulting them on housing, land tenure and infrastructure issues.

Housing construction and land surveying has commenced in Napranum, Woorabinda, Palm Island, Doomadgee, Aurukun, Kowanyama and Hope Vale with more work planned in these and seven other Indigenous local government areas in coming months.

“Communities should feel confident that the work done to increase the number and improve the quality of housing will reflect their specific needs,” says Program Office executive director Allen Cunneen.

“Along the same lines, any work done to resolve land tenure and improve essential infrastructure such as water or sewerage will reflect the communities’ needs and wants.”

The Program Office’s work has also brought exciting new job opportunities to some of the state’s most remote communities.

In Hope Vale, for example, the local council has signed up eight apprentices to meet the demand created by construction of new homes.

In Napranum, the wave of new construction has not only given fourth-year apprentice carpenter Thomas Desatge more practical experience but has cemented his dreams: “I’m looking to be a subcontractor in the future and build my own house.”

More information
Program Office: 07 4057 3861