Community-Designed Home Linked to Rapid Improvement in Children's Skin Health
For the first time, a community-designed home in Tennant Creek has delivered immediate and measurable health outcomes. Within one month of moving into the Explain Home, three children who had suffered chronic skin sores for their entire lives were completely healed.
The significance extends far beyond the visible improvement. Skin sores are a gateway to serious preventable diseases, particularly rheumatic heart disease, which affects 2-3% of children in remote Northern Territory communities. This is the highest rate in any developed nation.
"I've known these children since they were babies, and all of them always had multiple active skin sores," says Dr Simon Quilty, Chief Operating Officer of Wilya Janta. "When Serena mentioned they no longer had any sores, I was stunned. Within a month of living in a properly designed home, all three children had clear skin. As a doctor, I know this means they're also protected from rheumatic heart disease, kidney disease, and other life-threatening infections."
Rheumatic heart disease remains a disease of poverty and overcrowding in Australia. It requires lifetime medication, costly surgery, and often causes permanent disability or death in young people. The condition emerges from repeated untreated streptococcal infections. These infections thrive in overcrowded, poorly designed housing.
"Housing isn't a healthcare issue. It's a health issue," Dr Quilty explains. "The Northern Territory has the highest per capita healthcare spending in Australia, yet we're treating preventable diseases that stem directly from poorly designed houses. We're treating the symptom, not the cause."
Wilya Janta is an Aboriginal consultancy in housing design and evaluation. The organisation doesn't build houses. Instead, it works with communities to build their capacity to have complex conversations about the homes they want and to ensure the space between community, industry, and government remains community-led.
The Explain Home was the first test case, developed through a collaboration between Warumungu people, engineers, architects, and scientists from CSIRO. Over three years, the team embedded cultural design principles into the structure, addressing overcrowding, thermal performance, and safety while respecting how Aboriginal families actually live.
"We've proven the current Northern Territory government housing model is failing," Dr Quilty says. "Houses are referred to as 'prison houses.' They have terrible thermal performance, forcing the poorest Australians to pay the highest electricity bills in the hottest part of Australia. We have a tangible solution, and we need government to listen."
Wilya Janta has trained ten Warumungu people in Tennant Creek in the design process and developed the Right Way Housing Guidelines for Aboriginal communities. This framework allows communities to design homes their way, rather than waiting for government approval.
With $4 billion currently available for remote Aboriginal housing, the timing is critical. "The first home is proof of concept. Now we need to replicate this across the Northern Territory and beyond," Dr Quilty says. "These aren't just better houses. They're investment in health, education, and opportunity for generations to come."
ABOUT WILYA JANTA
Wilya Janta is an Aboriginal-led housing design and evaluation consultancy working on Warumungu Country in Tennant Creek. The organisation builds community capacity in housing design and develops culturally appropriate guidelines for remote Aboriginal communities.
MEDIA PACKAGE
Please find the link to photos and video interview with Dr Simon Quilty along with B-Roll here - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/a9eah3l5gg2flnba7haa8/AOjpqzvxgE4qn 9IHmkLc9UA?rlkey=ppo8p4bcv7vi8cpbsar786718&st=wml251s7&dl=0
All photos to be credited to Andrew Quilty
Names and descriptions located in photo metadata
SUPERS
Dr Simon Quilty
Wilya Janta - Chief Operating Officer
MEDIA CONTACT
Anna-Marie Harding
0459 265 699
annamarie.harding90@gmail.com