The Burringurrah community has been without fuel and a shop for years. In fact, their nearest fuel source was 40km away at the Mt Augustus Tourist Park!
As well as being a huge cost and inconvenience, this meant that Burringurrah had no food or fuel self-sufficiency or security.
In late 2020, the Wadjarri Yamatji Aboriginal Corporation secured a State Government Infrastructure Grant to renovate and refurbish the Burringurrah community service station, shop and attached house.
Unfortunately, the Wadjarri Yamatji Aboriginal Corporation were unable to take on the project so the Burringurrah Community Aboriginal Corporation (BCAC) with assistance from the Gascoyne Development Commission secured the project funds, in partnership with Real Futures.
In September 2023, Real Futures Gascoyne, led by Sean Challis, took on the project and began work in the community.
Real Futures is committed to providing jobs and training opportunities for local people, so we built team of Burringurrah locals to work on the construction, repairs and renovations.
It’s a big project and some of our many tasks include:
- Installation of new fuel bowsers
- Payment methods at the pump (point-of-sale machines)
- Tank examination and refuelling
- Refurbishing the shop including installing security, new lighting fixtures, windows, and doors.
- Replacing old shipping containers with new ones
- Renovating the shop house including fixing or replacing windows and doors, cleaning and furnishing it for a manager to live on-site
Upon receiving the community’s blessing, Real Futures and Refuel Australia bought and installed new bowsers, EFTPOS card readers and had the fuel tanks cleaned and filled.
Alongside this, work was happening at the shop and house.
Many visits from an electrician ensured all the faults were fixed, as well as new LED and security lighting being installed.
Both buildings were also reglazed by a local Carnarvon firm and security screens replaced where possible.
To help with the project, our Carnarvon work team travelled out to renovate the shop and house. We’re grateful for their assistance and making the long trip out there.
We were also extremely grateful for a generous donation of furniture from the Gascoyne Development Commission to fully furnish the shop house.
On Thursday 2nd November, we all celebrated the work being completed and Burringurrah now having a working fuel service station! The community was extremely excited and started using the bowsers straight away.
Real Futures will continue supporting the community to get the shop fully operational and create employment opportunities in Burringurrah. We are currently in discussion with a company who may take on the lease of the store.
Our team is committed to helping Burringurrah build its infrastructure and become a more self-sustainable community with local jobs and micro-businesses.
We’d like to give the biggest thank you to Sean Challis for his dedication and expertise and being the driving force behind this project. He spent countless hours on the road to and from Burringurrah and mentored many locals who worked alongside him.
