Power in the bush
Connie Braedon and Syd Kenny with their home Bushlight system, Mount Peachy Outstation, NT.
A solar energy project is bringing a sense of ownership to people out bush.
The day they were able to keep food cold and fresh for the first time was an exciting one for Connie Braedon and Syd Kenny, Luritja people of the Mount Peachy Outstation, 90 kilometres south of Alice Springs.
“We had a house but often had no power,” says Connie. “It was terrible!”
“We had to go into town every second day to buy diesel. It cost a lot and the cars got ruined travelling on dirt roads, and we spent a lot of money on candles so we could see at night.”
That was before the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CAT) in Alice Springs came to their assistance. CAT develops technology and infrastructure solutions with people living in remote communities. The Indigenous-run organisation works across the Northern Territory, the Kimberley and western and northern Queensland.
To improve Connie’s situation, staff from CAT installed a Bushlight solar-power system on Connie’s house and two others at Mount Peachy.
“These mob out here like their bush foods,” says Syd. “They eat a lot of kangaroo and goanna and there was nowhere to put the meat then, but we can keep a lot of tucker now.”
Before Luritja woman Ruth Emery and husband Max from the Pwerte Arntarntarenhe Outstation, 75 kilometres south of Alice Springs, got their Bushlight solar-power system, their solar system only worked seven hours a day and wasn’t reliable in cloudy weather.
“Sometimes on a cloudy day the battery for the solar panel would go flat and we’d need to use the generator to boost up the power,” says Ruth.
“It was a nuisance having to go back and forth between solar and generator power.”
The Bushlight project is working to ensure power is provided 24 hours a day to remote communities for essentials like fridges, for food and medicines, and for lighting to keep communities safer at night.
The Bushlight systems are designed to generate sufficient power even in wet season months when sunshine is not strong. Circuits are also split so that power isn’t used up on non-essential appliances. Each household has an energy management unit in its house that allows residents to easily monitor usage and make sure they’re within the energy budget agreed to at the time of installation.
“The Bushlight panels are much better,” says Ruth. “We just watch the box on the wall so we know how much power we can use. When Bushlight came, that’s when things started improving.”
Find out more
CAT was created in Central Australia in the late 1970s to support the outstation movement, which involved communities returning to their home country.
Back then, a group of Warlpiri people who had been living at Papunya in the Northern Territory wanted to go home to their country and asked for help to establish a water supply on their lands.
As a result CAT was established. It helped the Warlpiri group get suitable bores drilled and hand pumps installed.
Once the water supply was functioning approximately 100 people moved back to their home country which is today called Walungurru (Kintore).
Thirty years later CAT is still providing help to bush communities so they can develop and maintain appropriate technology and infrastructure.
The Bushlight project assists with the installation costs of solar energy systems in outstations and remote communities, and helps communities understand and maintain their systems.
The project has provided solar power to 120 communities and outstations in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. The project also repairs and maintains over a hundred non-Bushlight renewable energy systems for communities.
CAT has produced a National Indigenous Infrastructure Guide 2010, a handbook on selecting and maintaining basic infrastructure related to energy, telecommunications, water, storm water, wastewater, waste management and transport. For free hard copies of the National Indigenous Infrastructure Guide contact fahcsia@nationalmailing.com.au, phone 1800 050 009 or visit Centre for Appropriate Technology website
.
CAT has also produced a new Community Water Planner Field Guide, which gives practical advice on maintenance of water infrastructure. To receive a copy of the Community Water Planner Field Guide contact CAT on (08) 8959 6100 or visit Centre for Appropriate Technology website.
More information on the Bushlight program is available at Bushlight website.
13.7mb]