Housing construction begins in Alice Springs town camps

Construction is underway on the first of 85 houses to be built in the Alice Springs town camps under the Strategic Indigenous Housing and Infrastructure Program.

The Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, the Northern Territory Minister for Central Australia, Karl Hampton, and the Minister for Indigenous Health and the Member for Lingiari, Warren Snowdon, today welcomed the start of work on the first new house at Larapinta Valley.

“With construction starting on the first house we are on the way to providing long overdue housing and infrastructure to improve the lives of the town camps residents,” Ms Macklin said.

“This includes new houses, essential infrastructure and refurbishments of existing houses in poor condition.

“Over the coming months, construction of a further seven houses will start as part of the early works package at Larapinta Valley, Hidden Valley, Little Sisters, Trucking Yards and Warlpiri town camps where serviced blocks are already available.

“We are currently working with the Alliance partner, Territory Alliance, to finalise the locations of the rest of the 85 new houses as well as the scope of the refurbishments to existing houses that will be taking place.”

Mr Hampton said the start of construction on the first house demonstrated both governments commitment to improve housing and build a strong Indigenous workforce.

“The start of the first three bedroom house has given twelve local Aboriginal men jobs as trade assistants after completing training in general construction, work safety and carpentry through Tangentyere Employment Services,” Mr Hampton said.

“We are committed to increasing Indigenous employment as construction progresses, with many more positions becoming available.”

As part of the process of providing essential services, wheelie bins will be delivered to 230 houses in the town camps this week, with weekly rubbish collection by the Alice Springs Town Council to begin on 5 March 2010.

The roll-out of wheelie bins and regular collection of rubbish is essential to providing safe and healthy living conditions for families.

“These families will now have the same rubbish collection services which are available to other residents of Alice Springs,” Mr Snowdon said.

Mr Hampton said residents would be provided with information on the service so they can get into the habit of putting rubbish in the bins, putting the bins out and bringing them back in.

“We will be explaining what the residents’ responsibilities are and what the council’s responsibilities are,” Mr Hampton said.

The construction of housing and the roll-out of wheelie bins is part of the Australian and Northern Territory Governments’ $150 million Alice Springs Transformation Plan.