For Yorta Yorta woman Heidi, building her first home is more than choosing bricks and paint – it is providing stability and a positive future for her family to thrive.
Heidi's journey to home ownership took a bumpy road. The single mother of six was battling dark times when she decided to take charge of her life and make a change.
"I had to turn my life around for my children. Life is too short. So, I got a job in Community Services and started saving."
Heidi wants to provide stability for the future generations of her mob – including her kids and grandkids.
"I thought, 'I'd really like to own my own home,' so when I pass away, my children have got something. It means everything to me to be able to give them that stability, safety and security for the future," Heidi reflected.
Heidi first heard about IBA from a work colleague. After completing her expression of interest form, she was able to get advice on how to prepare for home ownership and where she needed to improve before applying for a home loan.
"There were a few things on my credit rating that I needed to fix up, and IBA told me just to keep saving as much as I could."
"I started budgeting. I'm an artist and an author, so I saved all my money from that. Of course, I had to sacrifice some things, but it was worth it in the end."
Now, Heidi's years of moving around in rentals with her kids are coming to an end, as she settled on her new block of land on 22 January. "The kids are so excited. They keep saying 'Mum, when are we moving into the new house?' I'm so excited. It can't come quick enough for me," Heidi said.
Her new home is set to be built by July, but Heidi said it is worth the wait to build a perfectly suited home for her and her family.
"I decided to build because I can create a home that is exactly what I want. I can personalise it to what suits me. It'll be the colours that I like and the things that I want in my home."
"It's so exciting. My two youngest kids were also really excited to help me pick the new house."
When asked what advice she'd give to someone else interested in buying a home, Heidi said, "If you're determined to achieve something, you can achieve it," a motto that she has proven throughout her life.
Heidi was able to access the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme (FHLDS) through IBA with only a 5% deposit. This means if she wants to refinance to a mainstream lender in the future, the guarantee is portable to other participating lenders. With IBA and under the FHLDS, Heidi avoided the costly mortgage insurance and the minimum 20% deposit. Find out more about the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme.
Have you thought about building your own home? IBA received an equity injection from the Federal Government for new customers to construct homes in regional areas. Find out more.
On a beautiful day in Northern NSW, holiday makers are exploring the Tweed River at their leisure. Boyd’s Bay Houseboat Holidays help create this special experience for locals and tourists, with the hire of stylish houseboats accommodating up to 12 people.
Owner Greg Ebsworth is a proud Wangkumarra man from North West NSW and he and his partner Nathalie have faced challenges this year with inspiring resilience. For him, the COVID-19 pandemic has been just another storm to weather.
“Like many small businesses we’ve struggled a bit,” he says. “We were closed down for a few weeks from Easter. This had an incredible impact on our business - being shut down for so long with no income coming into the business and the uncertainty of when we would be able to be open to trade again.”
The fast-changing situation in Australia brought about a tumultuous year for business. After weeks of being unable to operate, Boyd’s Bay Houseboat Holidays opened in June and for the next two months, things were looking up. But border closures in late July brought about cancellations from customers unable to travel, causing more financial uncertainty.
IBA’s Business Relief package helped them stay afloat. “Luckily for us, IBA was there for support, offering us a business loan and grant to help ease the financial strains from the limited trade that was caused by the COVID- 19 pandemic,” Greg says.
“It really, really made the difference in us surviving these difficult times.”
Greg and Nathalie have been committed to the business since buying it in 2016, after 16 years away working and travelling the world as yacht captains.
“It gave us a chance to have a real go at making something our own and building a future for our family,” he says.
“IBA have been very supportive… in the beginning with some business mentoring and accounting help and then right through the term of our loan, with our IBA contact constantly checking in with us, helping us and guiding us when needed.”
This isn’t the first challenge beyond their control. The 2018-19 drought had a negative impact on local tourism and having their loan restructured helped them continue. Then in December 2019, one of their boats was damaged by customers causing it to sink. This had a huge effect on their income, losing three months of bookings over the summer holiday period.
These ups and downs haven’t broken Greg’s spirits and he is positive about the coming months. Now that many domestic borders have opened, Greg expects the business to bounce back and the rest of the season to be plain sailing.
Read more about Boyd's Bay Houseboats.
Have you ever considered building your own home? With IBA’s recent $150 million Government equity injection, building your own home could be a reality.
For Bunyah man Beau and his wife Jess, building their first home was a dream come true. The couple was attracted to building for the freedom of creating a home that was perfectly suited to them.
“Jess and I decided to build our own home because we really wanted to make the house ours. We wanted to start from scratch and just decide how we wanted to set the foundations for our family in a way so it would be perfect for us,” says Beau.
In the Federal Government’s bid to boost construction and employment opportunities, IBA received a $150 million equity injection. The funds will help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to get into the housing market sooner, with fast-tracked home loan applications for customers who are wanting to build a home in a regional location and the loans have no application fees and low deposit requirement.
“Building your own, you can tell people ‘I built this, I designed this, we chose this, and this is how we wanted it, and this is our ideas come to life.’ This is our dreams on a slab of concrete. This is what we wanted. So, the house can grow with us when we grow our family.”
If you’ve ever considered building, now may be the perfect time.
To find out more about the application process, contact one of our friendly home loan consultants.
More information on the equity injection.
For many young people, buying their first home in their 20s may seem out of reach, but Ryan and Keilan were determined to make it happen.
Ryan McDonald, a Waka Waka man, and Keilan Carson, an Arunta man, are IBA’s 20,000th home loan customers since the inception of the Indigenous Home Ownership Program in 1975. The lessons they learned along the way are something all future homeowners can learn from.
Having been together for 5 years, and recently getting engaged, Keilan says the decision to buy their first home together “just felt right.”
Ryan and Keilan’s parents recommended they look at applying through IBA.
“When we first applied, we were on the waiting list for a long time,” Keilan said. The couple used this time to pay off credit card debts, continue saving for a deposit and seek advice from family on what other expenses they would need to budget for such as rates and utilities.
“Our family have been really supportive in helping us to get ready for home ownership, because we’re investing in our future and not just buying something silly,” they said.
The couple also stopped using short-term credit service providers, gaining an understanding through the IBA home loan process of how it was affecting their credit scores.
Ryan and Keilan’s IBA home lending officer, Jayde Clothier, a Kokatha and Wirangu woman from South Australia, said that it was common for people to not be aware of how these services can impact their credit rating and lending capability.
IBA has recently launched free online workshops to support customers wanting to understand credit.
When Ryan and Keilan got the news that they had been pre-approved for an IBA home loan, they started looking straight away. Thinking ahead, they contacted the real estate agency of their rental property.
“When we got pre-approved we told our real estate who we were renting from, ‘oh we might have a house!’ so we started paying week to week so that we weren’t locked into another lease,” Keilan said.
The young couple’s journey to home ownership was not without its challenges.
“When COVID-19 hit, our loan application got put on pause. It was really upsetting because we didn’t know if we were going to get the loan,” Keilan said.
“We also had a bad experience with the real estate. There were a lot of unknowns that we had to navigate. Jayde from IBA was able to guide us through the process and help us understand what we needed to do,” Ryan added.
“It feels good to say that we own our own home. I’ve worked at Hungry Jacks for a long time. People thought I couldn’t do it on a fast food salary because of the stigma attached to the work that I do. I feel proud that I’ve been able to accomplish something.”
When asked what advice they would give other young people considering buying a home, they said to “just do it.”
“Most of our friends haven’t looked into buying a house yet, and some are still living with their parents. We hope that we can inspire them, and our younger family members. If we can do it, they can too,” Ryan said.
Keilan added, “It’s way better than renting and paying off someone else’s mortgage. Plus we can do whatever we want, like building our deck for example, without asking anyone. It feels good!”
Committed to setting a strong foundation for their future, the young couple are doubling down on their mortgage, paying more than the minimum required each week to get ahead in their repayments. They know that if an unexpected event happens, such as losing income due to COVID-19, they will be able to put their payments on hold without going into arrears.
“My cousin asked me about home ownership now that we’ve done it. My nephew is already looking into buying a house and he is only 19. I told him to go through IBA. His mum, who is my older sister, bought her house through IBA too,” added Keilan.
Jayde says a key purpose of the IBA Home Ownership Program is to create intergenerational change.
“Seeing what your parents have done, what your sister has done and now you’re doing it yourselves, this is what IBA truly sets out to achieve, to bridge that gap, help to close it and create these best practices that will filter down into generations.”
Ryan and Keilan are excited to spend Christmas in their new home.
“We’re inviting our families over for Christmas and to celebrate with us. Not everyone has seen it yet. Hopefully we’ll have the deck done by then!”
Resilience during COVID-19 has many faces. Transforming opportunities can be an important part of the process.
Lyn and David McPherson bought The Ark Clothing Company, more than four years ago and have six stores in Victoria, stores in Sydney and Adelaide and an online store. The company is ethically accredited from Ethical Clothing Australia and the designs are all Australian made.
When COVID-19 hit, The Ark’s retail and manufacturing was significantly impacted. Yet Lyn and David saw an opportunity to expand on another part of their business model, Thread Group Australia, established in 2020 to provide healthcare, hospitality and corporate industries with Australian made apparel for businesses. Thread Group Australia was able to utilise the expertise, skills and strategies of The Ark Clothing Company.
“We were quick to move to making fabric masks for community usage with surgical masks being prioritised for frontline healthcare workers,” says David. “This ability was wholly reliant upon the transferrable skills of our amazing Ark staff, from design to pattern-making to production. We tested a number of different styles and feel we have perfected a comfortable, three-layered, WHO compliant design.”
This was met with encouraging success, leading to an opportunity to fulfil orders for the Victorian state government along with a number of other local manufacturers. Thread Group Australia also produced PPE apparel for hospitals, aged care facilities and respiratory clinics. Creative Spirit, an Indigenous packaging supplier, was enlisted to provide boxes for mask and PPE orders. The Ark Clothing Company continued to make beautiful fashion pieces that were available in store and online.
Support and guidance from IBA as part of the Business Relief Package enabled The Ark Clothing Company and Thread Group Australia to continue to manufacture fashion pieces, community masks and PPE for Australians when they needed it most during COVID-19. David and Lyn are grateful to IBA for reaching out and for the provision of skilled assistance and encouragement to navigate the challenges of the pandemic.
Eventually, it will be back to business as usual for The Ark Clothing Company but until then they are living by the motto, “Survive to Thrive”.
Find out more about The Ark or Thread Group.
IBA’s Performance Bond Trust has assisted contractors across the country to participate in a wide variety of contracts including mining, civil works, construction, facility upgrades and renewable energy construction by guaranteeing their capacity to complete projects while requiring minimal security.
One of those contractors was Hicks Civil & Mining Pty Ltd - a 100% owned Aboriginal business providing civil construction services and equipment hire throughout the Pilbara region in WA. Through the IBA Performance Bond Trust, they were able to successfully tender to the Koodaideri iron ore mine and have delivered earthwork and drainage works for the project to date.
Hicks Civil and Mining Director, Caitlin Hicks Forshaw says, “We are now focusing on finishing off this project strong and leaving a reputation that will be put down in the history books for Aboriginal Contractors and be the example of showing that Aboriginal Contractors have the capacity to deliver such projects.”
“While we have both our onsite and offsite management teams – it’s the people and organisations that surround us that have also assisted in this project. IBA have been a massive contribution to our business and I have to thank them immensely.”
Through their hard work and success, Hicks Civil & Mining have been able to give back to their community supporting initiatives such as funding school pick-ups and sponsoring local events.
Since inception in 2018 the IBA Performance Bond Trust has now supported over 170 bonds worth $12 million, supporting contracts valued at nearly $202 million. Bonds totaling $167,600 have been returned due to successful completion of projects, many of which have been in regional and remote locations.
Find out more about our Performance Bonds.
“Aboriginal people have been dealing with technologies for thousands of years. These newer technologies that we’re linking into shows that we’re bridging that gap and that Aboriginal people have always been in that technology space. It’s been crucial to their survival.”
That’s what Arrernte man Peter Renehan, CEO at the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CfAT), said in this beautiful video that shows the ground station build in Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
This multimillion-dollar facility is the first Aboriginal-owned commercial satellite ground station in Australia – tracking earth from space via a unique partnership with global satellite communications company Viasat Inc.
Built, project-managed and owned by Indigenous companies – CfAT and its subsidiaries Ekistica Ltd and CfAT Satellite Enterprises, as well as Ingerreke Commercial who laid the concrete foundations in December 2019.
Peter goes on to say, “We can develop programs that can help and assist land management and ranger programs, carbon farming, monitoring of fires and all sorts of things; so it’s pretty significant and important...If you think of the breadth right across Australia, whether it’s our land or our seas, to be able to provide that access to that information and data from Alice Springs is a feather in our cap. I think Central Australia and Alice Springs should be really proud of this sort of development.”
This video captures the technology in action. IBA worked with local Indigenous videographers Since1788 Productions to create the time lapse of the project which ends with the night sky.
In partnership with The Guardian Labs, IBA developed a series of articles on the impacts of home ownership on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The last of the series featured two strong Indigenous women and how their families have blossomed through their experiences.
Kylie and Naomi share their stories from budgeting to education to how their kids now see home ownership as an achievable dream.
Read more at The Guardian Labs - IBA: Building Communities.
Helen Martin is an Arrente woman with a passion for Aboriginal tourism and what she and her husband Trevor have created on Bremer Island is not to be missed! With permissions from the local Yolngu community, Helen and Trevor run a beautiful eco-retreat on a pristine island off the coast of Arnhem Land.
It takes hard work and resilience to run your own business but the rewards can pay off. Watch this weekend's episode of SBS Small Business Secrets on SBS World News, Sunday 7am or 5pm AEST, as they explore the stunning Banubanu Beach Retreat.
Read the article, 'The Indigenous-owned resort offering visitors a taste of Aboriginal Australia' or watch the segment below.
#ideasinvested #strongwomenstrongbusiness #aboriginaltourism
Liandra Gaykamangu is a Yolngu woman who balances a business, Liandra Swim, with a growing family and believes that empowering women empower women further. We couldn't agree more!
Her SBS Small Business Secrets segment is breaking records with views of over 500,000. She's a talent who opened the Pacific Runway as her first ever show and the only Australian designer. Her latest swimsuits are made from recycled ocean plastic and packaged in biodegradable plant material.
Liandra is also on the representative group for Futures Forum where our young people are creating a map for culture to influence business in the future. She hopes to show other young Indigenous mothers that anything is possible.
Read the SBS article, 'The Indigenous fashion designer making swimwear from recycled plastic', or check out the full segment on video.
#strongwomenstrongbusiness #futuresforum #ideasinvested
