We are launching our new laundry in Casuarina on November 12 at 10am out the front of the AIG building on Dripstone Road. If you’re interested in learning about how this exciting project works, or how you can benefit from the service, come and join us.
“We’ve spent the last two years telling everyone about our Barunga laundry,” AIG CEO Steve Smith said. “Now that we have a centrally located unit, we can more easily show just how innovative our laundries are.”
Background to the Remote Laundries project
In 2019 we began a project called Remote Laundries which provides robust laundries in remote communities with two key objectives: to provide jobs for locals and improve community health through washing and drying clothes.
Our first laundry unit was put in Barunga and has been a clear success, and we’re ready to begin rolling out other laundry units into the seven northern regions of the NT.
Better at targeting scabies and skin sores
The laundry unit in Barunga is almost two years old and we’ve learned a lot about what works well and what should be changed. The new unit has quite a few changes in the types of machines installed and the functionality, serviceability, and connectivity of systems within the laundry unit.
A key difference is how well the machines target the scabies parasite. The new machines are more efficient at killing the scabies mite by heating the water in the washing machines to 50 degrees internally instead of relying on a separate water heater.
Our CEO is pretty happy with the new setup and says its flasher than sliced bread – state of the art, but robust, durable and secure.
Casuarina based unit is good for three reasons
This new laundry unit will mark the second laundry as part of our project and will have an important role to play in the long-term success of our Remote Laundries project.
Firstly, we chose to put the laundry in Casuarina because we know it’s not only Aboriginal people in remote communities that need this valuable service. There are Aboriginal communities and a homeless population here in Darwin that can benefit from having a reliable place to wash clothing.
“There is a lot of foot-traffic in this area from people using Traditional Credit Union,” Steve said. “The convenient location will allow people to do their banking and their washing simultaneously.”
Secondly this unit will become a centralised training facility, where remote based laundry staff will come to Darwin for training in laundry operations, maintenance and servicing.
Thirdly the Casuarina based laundry will be an accessible site for testing data collection models that will be an important feature of our laundry model going forward.
Expected laundry users
We expect there will be two groups that use the Casuarina based unit. Firstly, Aboriginal people within the Darwin region particularly those who are long grassing in Darwin.
Secondly, we will support Aboriginal accommodation shelters, charging a low-cost service fee to assist them to provide clean linen to their clients.
Benefits of having a visible laundry
Having the new unit in Casuarina will give us better access to demonstrate the benefits to other mobs within our region and provide sponsors with the opportunity to get up close and personal with the program, without having to travel extensively out bush.
Whilst we understand the importance of the travel to remote communities, issues like COVID19 highlighted the health risks of moving in and out of communities. A Casuarina based laundry will help us to continue to build stronger communities in remote communities and in Darwin.
If you’re interested in attending the launch please contact remotelaundries@aiggroup.org.au
