Army chief examines Kimberley team effort
Australian Defence Force chief of Army Lieutenant General David Morrison touched down in the Kimberley last week to tour the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program initiatives near Djarindjin and Lombadina.
The 175-strong camp was established in May in a bush clearing near Lombadina, to set up infrastructure for nearby Djarindjin, Ardyaloon and Beagle Bay communities.
AACAP is a co-operative initiative between the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Australian Army to improve conditions within remote Aboriginal communities.
Teams of dental, health, training and construction specialists will be deployed until October to provide health services and infrastructure, including a 13- lot subdivision, a family-and community childcare centre and a house.
Engineers will also reshape a road intersection, restore old construction borrow pits and provide of short-term accommodation.
The $4.5 million project is mostly on schedule, with soldiers pouring concrete at the site of the new community subdivision and imparting mechanical skills to Bardi Jawi rangers at the communities.
Their dental clinics, officers said, were popular and residents from nearby communities travel in with animals to visit the army vet.
AACAP projects focus on programs which allow the Army to use and build its construction, health and training expertise and its capacity to holistically deliver a range of services to remote communities that would not normally be available in a single project.
This is the second time AACAP visited the Dampier Peninsular, completing an Beagle Bay project a decade ago.
The self-sufficient economy aims to leave no impact on the region when it packs up camps about November 17, moving back to the east coast.
