Living in the 'forgotten' community of Beagle Bay
In the West Australian tourism town of Broome, droves of visitors gather for postcard views of red dirt meeting the ocean's edge.
But 130 kilometres north, the Indigenous community of Beagle Bay sits in stark contrast, with residents saying they feel forgotten by their landlord: the state government.
Leaders of the community, located 2,000km north of Perth, say their lot exemplifies a statewide policy breakdown, where the government retains control of remote Aboriginal housing while outcomes deteriorate.
Families invited the ABC into their homes, some of which lacked basic necessities such as hot running water.
Loading...Other homes have collapsed or unsealed floors and roofs.
Some residents say issues reported years ago received shoddy repairs, all while they continue to pay rent.
A licensed builder who inspected houses in Beagle Bay says some of the properties were unliveable. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
'This house is making me sick'
Melissa Smith said she went three years without hot water despite making regular maintenance requests over the phone and in person to the regional housing officer.
Melissa Smith says she had no hot water for three years. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
"I needed hot water, I got kids — they get sick and need warm baths," she said.
"It's stressful. I'm starting to feel like this house is making me sick.
"I just don't want to be here anymore. This house, with my kids, I'm just tired of looking at it."
The ABC visited in February and March and saw a burst pipe gushing water into the backyard, which Ms Smith said had been the case for three years.
Burst pipes at Beagle Bay resident Melissa Smith's house. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
In late April, hot water repair works and pipe maintenance were completed, but a slew of other maintenance issues had yet to be addressed.
Those ranged from doors that did not lock, significant mould in rooms, bathroom tiling not complying with the National Construction Code, as well as a sink that lifts away from the kitchen bench when pulled.
Ms Smith said when tradesmen came to fix issues, they said they were only contracted to do one individual job and were unable to look at other issues.
'Half-done jobs'
Down the road, Kerwin Chatanalgi said it took two months to fix a burst shower pipe, which was flooding the bathroom.
Kerwin Chatanalgi and his family spent more than two months waiting for a burst shower pipe to be fixed. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
"They came and put a bucket lid on the actual hole where they had to repair it. That's a rough and ready job," he said.
"It's lazy. They should've took the whole wall out and redone it, but they just repaired the pipe and put a lid on it.
"Someone should be held accountable for all the half-done jobs."
A tradesman came to Kerwin Chatanalgi's house and siliconed a bucket lid over the shower breach. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
A licensed builder, who asked to remain anonymous, inspected several Beagle Bay properties.
They said most showed critical failures by the landlord to meet repair and maintenance responsibilities under the tenancy agreement.
Many properties also had structural damage, the builder said.
Snakes and collapsed floors
Bernadette lives with her elder father, Dunba Nunju.
Their property was considered unfit for habitation, with structural conditions rendering the property unsafe, according to the licensed builder.
Dunba Nunju and his daughter Bernadette live in an unsafe house, according to a licensed builder. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
Their bathroom floor has collapsed and it only takes a couple of seconds of the shower running for water to leak and pool under the house.
The roof and floors are unsealed, with fixings corroded and walls easily moving when touched.
Parts of Bernadette Nunju's roof have peeled away leaving it unsealed. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
"What if Dad or one of us slipped? The whole thing will break. This house needs to be renovated again," Ms Nunju said.
"The housing manager here in Beagle Bay comes to do inspections but nothing has been done, we report it every time."
Ms Nunju and her father recount, with disbelief, the multiple times snakes have come through the unsealed floors of the bathroom.
"We have seen a snake inside; that's why Dad covers it with a garbage bag," she said.
Dunba Nunju puts bin liners up against wall and floor to stop snakes from coming inside. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
She has been on a waiting list to be relocated to another property in town since 2018.
Closing the Gap failures
Residents either report issues over the phone or in person to the regional housing officer, who lives in the community.
Beagle Bay is an Indigenous community in northern Western Australia. (ABC Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne)
But they say these reports are not acknowledged, and that they are not given a timeline for the repair job.
According to Consumer Protection WA, the repair of essential maintenance issues should be organised within 24 hours.
These include burst water pipes, broken hot water systems, electrical faults or urgent sewer repairs.
Meanwhile, other repairs, such as roof leaks, ceiling collapses, broken windows and locks, should be organised within 48 hours.
Closing the Gap targets have lagged, especially in remote regions, with only four of 19 national targets on track.
"We're going backwards instead of bloody forwards. The rubbish they talk about closing the gap, if anything we're moving further away from it," community elder Willy Smith said.
Willy Smith says he believes Australia is moving further away from closing the gap. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
"If I was running a pig farm, I wouldn't put my own pigs in there. It's all substandard houses and people are paying rent for it."
An Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute report, released in February, recommended boosting Indigenous community-controlled housing organisations.
Beagle Bay residents are actively pursuing the establishment of an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation to help manage housing locally, instead of relying on state-managed systems.
The remote community of Beagle Bay is 2,000 kilometres north of Perth. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
"We were one of the first Catholic communities in the Kimberley, and here it is, it's in dire straits … we've been forgotten," Mr Smith said.
"We need a committee and a council. Look at the housing business here. If we had governance here, this wouldn't be the status quo.
"Make the government aware we're still here, there are people here with children — we still exist."
Streamline and simplify
Kimberley Aboriginal Legal Services chief executive Matt Panayi said the process of lodging a maintenance request should be simplified.
Matt Panayi says there is only verbal confirmation that a maintenance issue has been reported. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
The legal service plans to release a regional housing report later this year after visiting several Kimberley communities with similar issues.
"There's no receipt via email or via text, or anything to confirm a maintenance issue has been reported, just a verbal confirmation," Mr Panayi said.
"The majority of them have multiple maintenance issues, waiting longer than the time-frames set out by the department … some much, much longer."
Walls in this Beagle Bay home are rotting with constant moisture and mould. (ABC Kimberley: Ruby Littler)
Service delivery challenges
In a statement, a Department of Housing and Works (DHW) spokesperson said the Kimberley presented "well-recognised service delivery challenges" that included its remote locations and limited availability of tradespeople.
"DHW conducts inspections twice a year of all public housing in remote Aboriginal communities to assess property condition and ensure maintenance needs are identified, recorded and actioned where required," they said.
"DHW is not aware of any occupied dwellings that have been assessed as structurally unsound or unsafe for tenants to occupy in Beagle Bay."
The spokesperson said that as of June 30, 2026, the DHW was actively managing a total of 17 overdue work orders for properties in Beagle Bay.
It was "not currently practicable" to provide tenants with written confirmation of work orders due to the number of homes managed by the department, they added.
