Foundation Projects

Expand the Central Australian Desert Project to Serve the Indigenous Community of Nitjpurru (Pigeon Hole)

Jaisaben Enterprises Pty Ltd (Distant Curve Remote Area Telecommunications)

Nitjpurru is a community in Australia’s Northern Territory of approximately 140 people, 450kms away from the nearest town. Nitjpurru is accessible only by four wheel drive vehicle and access is subject to flooding during the wet season. Telecommunications infrastructure is limited to a single payphone, shared by the entire community.

The Central Australian Desert Project connected the Northern Territory communities of Engawala and Atitjere with an embedded system using solar powered microwave relays. This impact grant will fund the development of a similar system for Nitjpurru. The project will also integrate a framework for supervising various systems needed to run the relays, cost-effectively monitor them, and ensure they are providing the necessary connectivity.

The picture shows a man working at a laptop underneath a tower frame and a solar panel, at sunset.
An Internet relay site that 2021 ISIF Asia grant recipient Distant Curve installed as part of a previous project that provided as a public service bushfire-monitoring cameras. The lessons from that project are being applied to Distant Curve’s 2021–2022 ISIF Asia connectivity infrastructure project in the Australian Northern Territory.