DESERT Heart Outreach is a grassroots organisation started by Yallingup resident David Lindner which works with Aboriginal people living in central Australia to build community vegetable gardens.
The aim of the project is to help improve the nutrition and wellbeing for people living in remote communities where their only access to food is a shop full of processed food, flour, sugar, milk, tea and junk food.
Mr Lindner said these remote communities were all in the same situation and that most of their health issues were diet related.
"The prices are inflated, a can of baked beans is $3 there, at the end of the day they cannot afford to buy really good food which is why I want to get these gardens launched,” he said.
Mr Lindner just returned from his second trip as part of the project where he took three team members to the remote Aboriginal community of Ikuntji and surrounding outposts where they spent 12 days building sustainable vegetable gardens in the communities.
It took the group three days to reach Uluru and another day’s drive to reach Ikuntji, pulling a trailer with equipment donated by Bunnings in Busselton and eight boxes of clothing donated by other organisations.
Before they left Mr Lindner was introduced to the chief land councilman and told him about his dream of building a community garden where everyone could pitch in.
When they arrived the land councilman pointed to a piece of land running alongside a community wall and said they could use it for the garden.
Mr Lindner said they built three vegetable gardens to see how they would go.
“We knew they wanted gardens they could not stop talking about them the first time we went and as soon as we started putting posts in the ground some mothers and children came over to help,” he said.
“One fellow borrowed a bobcat from the shire and brought in heaps of dirt for us it was an amazing time.
“All the children wanted to chip in and help build trenches, put reticulation in and they all wanted shovels.”
Mr Lindner is hoping to return to the community next year with back to back teams so they could stay longer and do more work.
“I am hoping to plant citrus trees, apparently citrus trees do really well out there and the children love oranges, we brought a couple of sack loads from Alice Springs and the children ate them like lollies.”
The Desert Heart Outreach project started after Mr Lindner met an Aboriginal elder in Dunsborough who invited him to visit the community.
”I want to thank all the people and business which donated towards the project, I have pretty much dedicated the rest of my life to Desert Heart Outreach,” he said.
