Food and water security is a great concern for the Walgett community, and the Dharriwaa Elders Group (DEG) and the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (WAMS) have been working to improve access to fresh, nutritous food and safe drinking water in Walgett for many years.
In 2018, DEG requested UNSW’s assistance with the testing of Walgett drinking water, after community concerns about its quality since the local Shire Council switched the town water source from the river to bore water due to the drought.
The advice from Professor Jacqui Webster from UTS (previously working at the George Institute for Global Health) was that the Walgett drinking water was high in sodium, which is of particular concern for people living with chronic disease. Subsequent advocacy by the Dharriwaa Elders Group saw significant media coverage on this issue, leading to the NSW Government committing to installing reverse osmosis systems to remove salt from Walgett as well as Bourke’s drinking water. Despite this, there are ongoing issues with local infrastructure and the quality of Walgett's drinking water.
The DEG now has the 'Gali' water kiosk in the front of its building providing the only safe source of drinking water for the whole Walgett community. The Gali was developed with UNSW and other collaborators and includes a bespoke reverse osmosis unit that filters the water and removes sodium, meaning that the water is suitable for people with chronic health conditions, unlike Walgett's drinking water.
Read more about the Gali here:
Walgett Food Forum
In 2019, Yuwaya Ngarra-li held a Food Forum at Walgett Community College High School. The aims of the Food Forum were to:
- Provide data and research about what is known about food issues relevant to Aboriginal people in Walgett and impacts on long-term health and wellbeing
- Gather community members and critical services, organisations, and other stakeholders together to discuss food issues in Walgett
- Facilitate a public forum that is action oriented and focused on positive strategies and evidence-based solutions.
Staff from local Aboriginal community controlled organisations, council staff, teachers, gardeners, food retailers and other concerned local residents, including Elders from the DEG, raised issues to do with food supply, drinking water, growing food locally and the effects of food choices on physical and mental health.
Food and Water for Life Program
Since the Food Forum, Dharriwaa Elders Group and Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service with Yuwaya Ngarra-li and collaborators from The George Institute for Global Health and the UNSW Global Water Institute have been implementing and refining the ‘Food and Water for Life Program’, which aims to address food and water insecurity issues, poor drinking water, costly and poor quality food, and the associated health and wellbeing issues in Walgett.
The aim of the Food and Water for Life program is to enable community-led sustainable food and water initiatives that are run by and employ Aboriginal people and ensure healthy drinking water and fresh nutritious food produced locally for years to come. This work was boosted by a five-year National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) grant (2021–2025) Food and Water for Life: co-creation and evaluation of sustainable innovations to strengthen food and water security, the objectives of which are to learn from experiences of food and water insecurity in other communities, establish a framework and tools to strengthen the program, and evaluate the program's impact on food and water security, nutrition and wellbeing in Walgett.
The Food and Water for Life program is an example of building community-led solutions to a serious systemic issue, with lessons for other communities and contexts. The activities range from enabling individuals to make different choices that can improve their and their families' health, to collaborating with retailers and agencies to work differently to support that change, as well as ensuring the accountability of those with the power and responsibility to ensure Aboriginal people in Walgett and elsewhere have access to safe drinking water and nutritious food, advocating for essential infrastructure and systemic change. It is ground up, long term and holistic, demonstrating the value of supporting existing community controlled organisations to lead the work they know is needed and sharing that work with others.
A 2025 briefing paper sets out the community-led activities of the Food and Water for Life program that have been developed and refined from 2019 to 2024, progress and outcomes identified to date, what has been learnt about building community-led solutions to improve food and water security, and plans for what's next.
Publications
- Alicia Dunning, Devanshi Gala, Loretta Weatherall, Tyrin Hickey, Christine Corby AM, Trish Tonkin, Ann-Marie Deane, Wendy Spencer, Ruth McCausland, Keziah Bennett-Brook & Jacqui Webster (2025) Food and Water for Life: Strenghthening community-led initiatives, 2019-2024.
- Loretta Weatherall, Alinta Trindall, Trish Tonkin, Joseph Alvin Santos, Dori Patay, Ruth McCausland, Wendy Spencer, Greg Leslie, Eileen Baldry, Keziah Bennett-Brook, Julieann Coombes, Tamara Mackean, Janani Shanthosh, Ty Madden, Bruce Moore, Ann-Marie Deane, Niall Earle, Christine Corby, Melissa Nathan, Sera L Young, Emalie Rosewarne & Jacqui Webster (2025) 'Measuring Food and Water Security in an Aboriginal Community in Regional Australia', The Australian Journal of Rural Health 33(1): e13214.
- Emalie Rosewarne, Trish Tonkin, Alinta Trindall, Joseph Alvin Santos, Dori Patay, Ruth McCausland, Wendy Spencer, Christine Corby, Julieann Coombes, Tamara Mackean, Greg Leslie, Niall Earle, Eileen Baldry, Janani Shanthosh, Ty Madden, Ann-Marie Deane, Loretta Weatherall, Bruce Moore, Keziah Bennett-Brook & Jacqui Webster (2024) 'Food intake in an Australian Aboriginal rural community facing food and water security challenges: A cross-sectional survey', Nutrition & Dietetics Early View 82(1): 86-96.
- Trish Tonkin, Ann-Marie Deane, Alinta Trindall, Loretta Weatherall, Ty Madden, Bruce Moore, Niall Earle, Melissa Nathan, Sera Young, Ruth McCausland, Greg Leslie, Keziah Bennett-Brook, Wendy Spencer, Christine Corby, Jacqui Webster & Emalie Rosewarne (2023) Yuwaya Ngarra-li Community Briefing Report: Food and Water for Life, Key findings from the Food and Water Security Surveys in Walgett.
- Niall Earle, Wendy Spencer, Ruth McCausland, Pauline Futeran, Jacqui Webster & Greg Leslie (2023) Yuwaya Ngarra-li Briefing Paper: Walgett’s Drinking Water.
- Niall Earle (2022) Sustaining the Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service Community Garden.
- Dharriwaa Elders Group & Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (2022) Inquiry into food production and supply in NSW, submission to the NSW Legislative Assembly Committee on Environment and Planning.
- Ashleigh Chanel Hart, Emalie Rosewarne, Wendy Spencer, Ruth McCausland, Greg Leslie, Janani Shanthosh, Christine Corby, Keziah Bennett- Brook & Jacqui Webster (2021) 'Indigenous Community-Led Programs to Address Food and Water Security: Protocol for a Systematic Review', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18, pp. 6366- 6366.
- Vanessa Hickey, Wendy Spencer & Jacqui Webster (2020) ‘Walgett community unites to tackle pandemic-related food shortages’, Croakey, 8 April.
- Dharriwaa Elders Group & Walgett Aboriginal Medical Service (2020) Inquiry into food prices and food security in remote Indigenous communities, submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Indigenous Affairs.
- Ruth McCausland (2019) ‘New report documents a community-led response to a health crisis in Walgett, NSW’, Croakey, 26 June.
News
