The project, a partnership with the Santos Foundation and the Aboriginal Investment Group, will enable two transportable shipping containers to be converted into reliable laundries.

The laundries will be in Wurrumiyanga in the Tiwi Islands and Palmerston.

The Barossa Aboriginal Future Fund, known as the BAFF, is a voluntary fund established by Santos and the Barossa joint venture partners Prism Australia and JERA Australia, with the aim to deliver intergenerational progress for Aboriginal Territorians and build a better future for the next generation.

The investment in the community laundries, which is just one of a number of investments it has made in resilience-boosting infrastructure across coastal Aboriginal communities, will also provide continued operational support to an existing laundry service in Casuarina, Darwin.

The initiative aims to improve access to laundries for communities to help combat preventable diseases.

A cost-benefit analysis by KPMG in 2020 found that over five years, one laundry provides $3.7 million worth of net savings to government because of the improvements in health.

The Community Laundry program will support up to 21 jobs across the three locations.

Santos Foundation Chair and Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kevin Gallagher says the BAFF, which is a voluntary fund established by Santos and the Barossa joint venture partners, aims to help close the gap for Aboriginal Territorians.

“There is a direct, evidence-based link between access to clean clothes and the prevention of acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease,” he says.

“Regularly washing clothing and bedding is a crucial preventative measure, particularly in communities where limited, or no, access to laundry facilities – hot water and machines – increases the risk of infection.

“The incidence of these diseases in remote Aboriginal communities can be tens to hundreds of times higher than in the broader Australian population.

“So, improving access to basic laundry facilities for remote and urban communities is a crucial part of building better health outcomes and helping to close the gap for Aboriginal people across the Top End.”

Santos Foundation Chief Executive Officer Jodie Hatherly says the foundation is proud to be partnering with Aboriginal communities to deliver reliable, free and culturally safe hygiene services, contributing directly to supporting healthier futures for Aboriginal people.

“Health is central to thriving communities, which is a core part of the Santos Foundation mission,” she says.

“We are providing basic health hardware in the form of laundries to reduce infection risks in remote communities. These are services that most of Australia takes for granted and we’re proud to be bringing them to some of the nation’s most disadvantaged communities.”

Aboriginal Investment Group Chief Executive Officer Elizabeth Morgan-Brett says AIG is delighted to be partnering with the Barossa Aboriginal Future Fund to build and operate more remote laundries.

“We know from Traditional Owners and through our most recent Impact Report, published by CSIRO, that where our laundries operate people are happier and healthier, kids go to school more and people go to work more with a feeling of pride and dignity, wearing clean clothes and having slept in a clean warm bed,” she says.

The new purpose-built laundries will be equipped with industrial washers and dryers, secure doors and an automated chemical management room – and staffed by local Aboriginal people. TQ