Retrofitting for resilience in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands

Mia-Francesca Jones reports on a pioneering retrofit project in the APY Lands that is improving thermal comfort in remote homes, while helping inform the future of climate-resilient housing.

Indulkana (or Iwantja) is a remote community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands in the north-west of South Australia. From Adelaide, it’s a plane flight to Alice Springs or Coober Pedy, plus a 3–4-hour drive.

Indulkana is the most accessible of all the communities in the APY Lands from the highway; the others require more hours on dirt roads that can get washed out and impassable at certain times of the year.

Indulkana was home to the RACE for 2030 APY Lands Energy Efficiency Retrofit Pilot that explored upgrading community housing for thermal comfort and energy efficiency. The collaboration between the University of South Australia (UniSA; now part of Adelaide University), the South Australian Housing Trust (The Trust) and South Australia’s Department for Energy and Mining (DEM), along with Aboriginal Affairs & Reconciliation SA in the Attorney-General’s Department, and many industry partners, made the project possible. Along with Ke Xing from Adelaide University, Lynda Curtis from DEM is the joint lead for the project. She describes the landscape as rich with saltbush and red sand, and while to an outsider the terrain may seem desolate and punishing, it holds an abundance of beauty and significance—“Being out there gets in your system,” she says. “When I arrive there, I can feel myself exhale. It’s a special part of the world. I especially love springtime when there is an explosion of wildflowers.”

Aboriginal people have lived in Australia’s Western Desert for tens of thousands of years—moving across the land, caring for family, and maintaining Lore and culture. It is, however, a harsh environment; temperatures in Indulkana can soar to above 45°C in summer, and below zero in winter. With broader climate extremes and overall hotter summers predicted for the future, how people will live and maintain healthy communities on Country is of growing concern.

In Indulkana, the lived experience of climate change is felt in homes, and reflected in language. Project Coordinator Phil Hespe says, “There was no word in local language for humidity—Anangu had to come up with one, because historically, there was little humidity in that climate.” As language is forced to adapt, so too must the housing.

“The concern is the liveability of these houses over the long term,” Phil says. “What’s going to happen in 10 to 30 years’ time? We’re already experiencing extreme weather, and the research is telling us we are going to experience more hot days. How hot will it get and how long for? What will happen in an event of consecutive days at 50 degrees? How do we help mob stay on Country into the future? How do we create an environment where people can survive and thrive?”

The importance of enabling community members to live in comfortable, affordable housing is reflected when talking to community members. When asked about what she likes about living on Country, Trisha Singer, an energy education worker whose involvement in engaging with households was critical to the project, says: “Having family in community. Smell fresh air. Not much noise—no fire engines or ambulance. It is not an easy life but it is a simple life. Can take family out to nature areas. Not much traffic in community, good for kids to be out and not worry about them.”

In 2023, air tightness testing and thermal imaging of 20 houses in the APY Lands—conducted by partner the Air Tightness Testing and Measurement Association (ATTMA)—identified thermal bridging and uncontrolled air leakage as key issues. Additionally, sections of bulk insulation were missing, disturbed or compacted, and in some cases, had been damaged by rodents. The project aimed to address these concerns by testing the effectiveness and financial viability of various energy efficiency solutions for houses of different ages and constructions.

Six homes were retrofitted to improve thermal performance and mitigate the impacts of extreme weather conditions through a combined approach of additional insulation and gap sealing measures. Three levels of retrofit were applied and monitored: gap sealing work only, gap sealing and ceiling insulation, and the third level applying both of these measures and additional wall insulation. This was all made possible by generous in-kind support from partners, Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand (supplied by Fletchers and CSR Bradford), Kingspan and Sika Australia.

Designed as a model which could be rolled out through the region, the pilot has generated data and insights that can inform future upgrades in other remote locations facing similar challenges, as well as in existing homes across Australia.

Lynda says coming up with solutions to these issues required a balance of energy efficiency and ongoing maintenance considerations, informed by household needs and feedback. “We wanted to ensure that retrofits provide households with increased comfort as well as reduced energy costs,” she says.

Striking that balance is even more challenging given the unique demands of delivering a project in such a remote location, including severe weather conditions and the need to work within local cultural contexts.

Challenge: Remote location
With a population of fewer than 400 people, there are limited amenities in Indulkana. There is a store, health clinic, school, shop and community centre—no Bunnings to be seen here. Two test rooms were built in Adelaide so that different solutions could be explored with easier access to resources.

One of the key issues, notes Phil, is the limited availability of alternative accommodation in the community, meaning work often has to proceed while tenants remain in their homes, with care taken to protect their privacy and peace. One solution was to install the additional wall insulation from the outside of the house rather than the inside, to reduce disruption to tenants.

The cost and logistics of transporting materials to remote areas also present significant challenges. This was addressed by establishing a storage facility in a nearby town so that materials were readily available when needed. Training the local workforce was another key priority, with the aim of upskilling community members to both implement and maintain housing upgrades.

According to Lynda, “Education was an important piece of the puzzle, getting as many community members to be involved in the delivery of the retrofits as possible and ensuring everyone performing the retrofits understood the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’ of the work they were being asked to do.”

To support this, industry partners ICANZ, CodeSafe-Deepspace, Pointsbuild and Efficiency Matrix provided video and educational resources that were used on site and are now available for everyone to access online.

Challenge: Extreme weather
While heat was an obvious issue for community members, surveys and interviews conducted with residents by local energy education workers revealed that winter cold actually caused the greatest discomfort. Although the homes are fitted with combustion heaters, obtaining firewood in this region can be difficult for many residents, often requiring a car and costly fuel. The pilot therefore focused on improving the ability of homes to keep heat and cold out, making them more comfortable year-round.

Due to the logistical barriers, solutions had to be relatively simple, says Phil. An example of this was in the application of continuous insulation to reduce thermal bridging and increase the walls’ insulative performance. Houses were fitted with a rigid insulation product, called Kingspan Kooltherm, that was applied to the external walls.

“We ordered one size, we didn’t try to complicate it,” he says. “Same with the roof insulation, we used a standardised product. You don’t want fussy solutions that are complex and difficult, you don’t want materials or items that require specialists to install. You try to adapt it to make it as easy as possible for as many people as possible.”

Educating the residents on how to use their homes for efficiency was also a key component of the pilot. As Phil says: “You can have a 10-Star building but if residents don’t know how to utilise it properly, you might not get the best results out of it.”

To support this, a range of home energy education resources were developed, including written materials and videos in both Pitjantjatjara and English, in close collaboration with community members, and partners TAFE SA, Healthabitat and Nganampa Health Council, along with a community-focused Industry Reference Group. These materials, and all other project resources, can be found on the Net Zero Energy Builder website (netzeroenergybuilder.com.au).

Monitoring challenges
Monitoring and testing played a key role in assessing the efficacy of the upgrades. Monitoring systems were installed in 12 houses—six baseline homes and six retrofitted homes—for over 12 months. Through a partnership with Powertech Energy, a Wi-Fi relay system was used in which sensors transmitted data to a central hub, allowing live monitoring of air temperature and humidity through a cloud-based dashboard.

Energy use was also measured for specific appliances, including ovens, electric boost systems for solar hot water and evaporative coolers. However, occasional power supply disruptions would interrupt Wi-Fi systems, resulting in significant gaps in the dataset and highlighting the limitations of Wi-Fi monitoring in remote settings, where hard-wired systems are more reliable but often prohibitively expensive across multiple homes.

The existing smart meters were helpful in understanding total energy consumption to form a clearer before and after picture. Alongside this technical monitoring, the team conducted interviews and regular informal check-ins with tenants and trades during the retrofit process, particularly during insulation works, to gather qualitative feedback about comfort, seasonal warmth and everyday experiences in the houses.

Interviews conducted with households in winter indicate that residents felt warmer in their homes after the retrofit, even when heating was not in use. When heating was used, it was needed for shorter periods. In summer, cooling was typically used for only a few hours each day, rather than running all day as it had previously. One resident, who received the full suite of retrofit options, said, “It gets too cold with the cooler on—I need to turn it off”.

Which intervention delivered the most immediate improvement in comfort?

Phil says an air-flow damper on the evaporative air conditioner was the best bang for buck.

“Through air tightness testing, we found the evaporative cooling system accounted for around a third of the air leakage,” he says. “A simple damper cost around $150 and took a couple of hours to install it. The next leakiest area was definitely the ceiling to wall junction. As the ceilings are lined with a metal-ribbed cladding, the whole perimeter of each room was an area for air leakage due to the small gaps created by the ceiling profile. Then it came down to sealing gaps around windows and doors, installing door seals and fitting butterfly self-closing exhaust fans.”

As a result of these measures, the project (and modelling) found:

• Air leakage in houses was reduced by an average of 53% and thermal bridging mitigation appears effective.
• Each retrofitted household saved an estimated 20kWh/day of electricity on cold days.
• Continued energy education is expected to deliver further energy reductions.
• The minimum annual savings per home are estimated at $400 in household energy costs and $2600 in State Government electricity supply costs.
• Demand reduction equates to approximately $1 million per year in energy savings for the 411 Trust-managed houses across the APY region.
• A reduction in over 10 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent per household per year.

How does the project inform the future of remote housing design—not just retrofit, but new builds?

According to Phil, the learnings from the pilot have guided the team to use rigid insulation on internal walls and across ceilings in new builds. “The product has longevity and provides continuous insulation that also reduces thermal bridging,” he says. “That’s a really positive outcome; the homes in the APY are going to be of a really high standard because you’ve got specifications that are above the requirements of the code, like the continuous insulation basically making it an Esky, and on the compliance side we now have a blower door testing kit and thermal camera so we can verify the results. If we could replicate that across Australia, that would be great.”

Lynda says that from a project perspective, the delivery of the retrofits has been highly successful. “One of the main things I’ve taken from it is that we really need to assess buildings for how they are performing before we make decisions about what to retrofit,” she says. “This also speaks to why we need to verify the performance of a building after it’s built. Diagnostic tools such as blower door testing and thermal imaging can highlight discrepancies between what was designed and what was built.”

When it comes to non-negotiables, Phil says draught-proofing should be prioritised, and ceilings should always be well insulated.

Looking ahead
Conversations with community members were essential for understanding how people actually use their homes. For example, further discussions revealed a desire for additional shading around the verandah to keep out heat and provide wind protection, enabling residents to spend more time comfortably outdoors.

Since the pilot, the introduction of ceiling fans has been extremely effective, and the team is now looking at alternative cooling and heating solutions that better suit the environment and reduce energy costs. For new builds, in addition to enhanced gap sealing and wall and ceiling insulation, slab-edge insulation is being added to further mitigate thermal bridging.

The SA Housing Trust has secured funding to roll out the upgrades to the remaining APY Lands homes, as well as other remote Aboriginal housing in South Australia. It is hoped the APY pilot will continue to influence government housing policy and inspire energy-efficient retrofits in homes across Australia.

“Working through long summers and intense winters can be tough—the environment in the APY Lands can be punishing. But it’s an important place of connection for the people who live there. We want to help people have healthy, comfortable lives on Country, well into the future,” Lynda says.

You can find out more information about the project at the Net Zero Energy Builder website, including access to the Final Report (from May 2026) and all supporting materials.

Project Partners:

• RACE for 2030 Cooperative Research Centre
• University of South Australia (UniSA) (Project lead)
• South Australian Department for Energy and Mining (Project lead)
• SA Housing Trust (Project lead)
• Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation in the SA Attorney-General’s Department
• TAFE SA
• Air Tightness Testing and Measurement Association (ATTMA)
• Pointsbuild
• Efficiency Matrix
• Insulation Council of Australia and New Zealand (ICANZ)
• Powertech Energy
• Kingspan
• Sika Australia
• Nganampa Health Council
• Healthabitat
• DeepSpace-CodeSafe Solution Services