Elders
Knowledge held. Knowledge passed on.
Elders share seasonal calendars, bush food knowledge and cultural protocols — anchoring every garden in the wisdom of Country.
National Indigenous Food Resilience Infrastructure
Rebuilding local
food capability
across remote Australia.
Growing Country is an Indigenous-led national initiative strengthening local food production, community capability and regional resilience — where Australia's food system is most exposed.
1 in 3
remote households experiencing food insecurity
30–60%
higher fresh-food prices in remote stores
$0.65
of each food dollar lost to freight & supply
120+
remote communities within national scope
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Acknowledgement of Country
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands and waters on which we work — and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.
The National Picture
Australia'sfood security gap.
Australia is one of the world's largest food-producing nations, yet many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities remain highly vulnerable to food insecurity.
Across remote Australia, communities sit at the most exposed end of the national food system — where rising freight costs, fragile supply chains, climate disruption and food price volatility are felt first and hardest.
Australia's food system has been optimised for efficiency, not resilience.
Growing Country has been developed in response to this growing national challenge — strengthening local food production, community capability and regional resilience through practical Indigenous-led food systems.
Scale
National
Lens
Resilience Infrastructure
Model
Indigenous-Led
Horizon
Long-Term Systems
A Question Worth Holding
If freight stopped for two weeks,
what would remote communities eat?
Food security is not simply a supply chain issue. It is an issue of access, resilience, and community capability — and it begins long before the shelves are empty.
Current Pressures
The remote food systemshock risk.
Remote Australia faces compounding pressures that deepen each year. Growing Country has been designed to strengthen resilience before these pressures deepen further.
01
Rising freight & fuel costs
02
Climate disruption & extreme weather
03
Fragile transport infrastructure
04
Supply chain concentration
05
Increasing food costs
06
Reduced local production capability
Under normal conditions, centralised supply chains are efficient.Under disruption, they become fragile.
Systems Thinking
Why localfood systems matter.
For decades, Australia's food systems have become increasingly dependent on long and centralised supply chains.
Floods, road closures, fuel volatility and climate events continue to expose how vulnerable remote communities are to interruptions in food supply.
Growing Country supports a complementary model focused on strengthening local food capability through community gardens, seed systems, training, mobile horticultural support and regional food resilience networks.
Food security is not simply about food availability.It is about relationships, participation, local knowledge — and the ability of communities to adapt under pressure.
Regional resilience
Local food capability
Resilience infrastructure
Climate adaptation
Local production networks
Community capability
Strengthening Indigenous-led food resilience also contributes to Australia's broader national food security future.
Resilience Infrastructure
Three connected pillars,one resilient system.
Designed to complement existing food systems while rebuilding local production, capability, and community-owned resilience.
Pillar 01
Climate-adapted community gardens
Designed for desert heat, tropical wet, and coastal salt — local food production capability built with communities and owned by communities.
Pillar 02
Mobile horticultural support
A fleet of fully-equipped growing vehicles delivering technical expertise, propagation, seed banking and seasonal training directly into the communities that need it most.
Pillar 03
Practical training pathways
Hands-on, accredited training in horticulture, irrigation, ranger-led land care and small-scale food production — opening real employment pathways for young people on Country.
The System
The Growing Countrysystem.
Five interconnected components — designed as resilience infrastructure, scalable across regions, and Indigenous-led from the ground up.
System Components
01
Community Gardens
Climate-adapted
02
Mobile Horticulture
Specialist support on-Country
03
Training Pathways
Accredited & employment-linked
04
Seed Systems
Local & indigenous varieties
05
Regional Networks
Connected resilience
Structure
National framework, regionally implemented
Ownership
Community-owned, community-led
Scale
Modular & replicable across remote Australia
Ground Truth
What we havelearned.
Years of working alongside remote communities have demonstrated several consistent realities. Growing Country has been designed around these lessons.
- 01
Fresh, healthy food remains unaffordable in many remote communities.
- 02
Remote communities remain highly vulnerable to supply disruption.
- 03
Community gardens succeed when ongoing support exists.
- 04
Schools, Elders and ranger programs become powerful partners.
- 05
Local participation grows when communities shape the system themselves.
- 06
Practical training and long-term support matter more than one-off infrastructure.
The Ripple
When communities grow food locally,the impact reaches far beyond nutrition.
Pride. Participation. Resilience. The garden is just the beginning of what gets restored.
Young People
Skills for land, life, and livelihood.
Schools and youth programs grow alongside our gardens — reconnecting young people with land care, nutrition, and real career pathways.
Country
From desert to Torres Strait.
Climate-adapted designs let us work everywhere — central desert, Top End, tropical north, and the coastal communities of the Torres Strait.
12
communities engaged in pilot phase
4,800kg
fresh produce projected per garden, per year
50+
young people in accredited training pathways
100%
community-owned, community-led outcomes
Growing Country is not simply about growing food.It is about rebuilding local capability, strengthening community resilience, and restoring relationships between people, food and Country.
— The Growing Country Promise
Get Involved
This is a long-term commitment.It will take all of us.
Growing Country is designed to complement existing food systems — and to be built in partnership with the communities, governments, and organisations who share the vision.
Government & Philanthropy
Co-design and co-fund community-led food resilience programs across remote Australia.
Start a conversationCorporate Partners
Long-term partnerships in supply chain, logistics, infrastructure and skilled-volunteer programs.
Start a conversationCommunities
Talk to us about bringing Growing Country to your community — on your terms, at your pace.
Start a conversationSupporters
Stay close to the work. Subscribe to our briefings and share what we're building.
Start a conversationThe Field Briefing
Quarterly updates from the ground.
Field stories, harvest reports, pilot outcomes and partnership opportunities. No noise. We respect your inbox.
Start the Conversation
Tell us what you'rebuilding toward.
Every partnership begins with a conversation. Share a little about your work, your community, or your vision — and we'll write back personally.
General
hello@growingcountry.orgBased on Country
Alice Springs · Cairns · Darwin · Perth