10 February 2025
Imagine running out of fresh bread or milk when the closest grocery store is more than 200km away.
Now add the challenges associated with corrugated dirt roads becoming impassable after heavy rainfall during a wet tropical summer.
That’s the reality some remote Australian communities face every day, including Bäniyala, a Yolŋu homeland on Blue Mud Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Northern Territory.
During the ‘wet season’, which is typically regarded as November to early March, Bäniyala faces challenges associated with food security, including the ability to transport food and store cold and long-life food.
To help ensure basic food essentials are available to Bäniyala residents all year round, Army engineers from 19th Chief Engineer Works (19CEW) are overseeing the delivery of a new community store as part of the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program (AACAP).
Referring to a neighbouring East Arnhem Land community three hours’ drive north-west of Bäniyala, Warrant Officer Class One (WO1) Liam Wardle said: “During the wet season, Bäniyala relies on food drops by air when they get cut off from the barge at Gapuwiyak.”
A works manager at Sydney-based 19CEW, WO1 Wardle has been overseeing the delivery of the Bäniyala community store since joining the unit’s AACAP delivery team in January 2024.
“Access and availability of basic food essentials wasn’t viable with the old community store and during the wet season this has a direct impact on cultural engagements, such as celebrations and sorry business,” WO1 Wardle said.
“The worst-case scenario for the community is that people move away for the duration of the wet season and don’t end up moving back at all.”
Originally scheduled for completion in 2023, construction of the new community store commenced after a prolonged wet season in May 2024.
'I’m really happy about this new store, it makes me proud outside and inside.'
Constructed on the highest point in Bäniyala to minimise the risk of flooding, and adjacent to the existing airstrip to facilitate deliveries by air when vehicle access isn’t viable, the new community store is set to help ensure food security for the community, including during severe wet seasons.
With three times the storage space of the old community store, and its own emergency power supply via a solar system with battery back-up, the new community store was designed to help meet the demands of the community.
“The covered veranda was designed to suit the way the community likes to gather,” WO1 Wardle said.
“It will provide a gathering space and once the shelving, fridges and freezers have been filled, the store will be ready to service the community and assure food security.
“This has been an unusually prolonged construction project but our commitment to it and the community remained steadfast.
“While there’s still bit of work to be done by the community to stock the shelves and get the shop up and running, we’re all excited to see Bäniyala receive the facility and the benefits it seeks to provide.”
Traditional Owner Dr Djambawa Marawili, who helped his father establish the first community store in Bäniyala, is particularly proud of the new community store in his homeland.
“In the 1980s, Dad decided to start a shop at Bäniyala,” Dr Marawili said.
“He gave me the money and told me ‘You go and buy the food’ and then we sold it to our clan.
“I’m really happy about this new store, it makes me proud outside and inside.”
Dr Marawili believes the new store will bring positive change to the community.
“It will be very important for our people,” Dr Marawili said.
“Some mob, especially the young people, go away and live elsewhere but they’ll soon see Bäniyala has changed.
“I think the shop will change their mind about where they live. They won’t have to go away; they can just buy here.”
