Groceries are so expensive in Queensland's Gulf of Carpentaria that residents travel hundreds of kilometres just to dodge the exorbitant prices.
"It's cheaper to pay for the fuel and drive the 150-kilometre round trip to Karumba to do our shopping," Normanton resident Derek Lord said.
Last month, the people of Croydon were forking out $17.50 per kilogram for tomatoes and $15 for lettuce.
A 3-litre carton of milk was selling for an average of $7.30.
"We know everyone in Australia is feeling the pinch," Normanton community leader and Kurtijar traditional owner Fred Pascoe said.
"But the cost of living is magnified if you're living rural or remote."
Now, after 10 years in the making, a shiny new $11 million supermarket has opened its doors in Normanton.
Indigenous ownership
Offering a wide variety of affordable fruit and vegetables, dairy, meat, fuel and white goods, as well as a chef and a place to sit, the Normanton supermarket had earned its name as one of the "flashest joints" in town, according to Mr Pascoe
The building has also been designed to outlast cyclones and runs on solar energy.
Ninety per cent of the employees are Indigenous and the store itself is owned equally by Aboriginal organisation Bynoe Community Advancement Cooperative Society (CACS) and the Gulf Regional Economic Aboriginal Trust (GREAT).
"The community is really taking ownership over this," Mr Pascoe said.
"The kids are making it a regular hangout.
"We've got pensioners going in there to have a coffee in the air conditioning.
"We've got everyone from grandmothers to high-school students behind the registers."
A springboard for nearby communities
More than a month has passed since the 1,000-square-metre building welcomed its first customers and Mr Pascoe said the benefits had already spread beyond Normanton.
"We've already had quite a few people from Karumba and Croydon visiting," he said.
"There's also 55 cattle stations in the Carpentaria Shire that we're looking to tap into."
Having a facility like this would help bolster the survival and growth of remote communities across the region, Mr Pascoe said.
"Without being too deep and meaningful, it is vital that people can walk down the main street in communities like Normanton and see a facility like this," he said.
Mr Pascoe said GREAT hoped to utilise connections to other groups in the region to improve the cost of living and access to fresh food in communities like Doomadgee, Burketown and Mornington Island.
"We want to utilise this Normanton store as a springboard for surrounding communities. We get truck deliveries three times a week. We can be a distribution centre," he said.
Residents were equally hopeful and optimistic about the significance of the store to the wider region.
"That is the best thing we have built to help build our local economy and benefit our community," Croydon woman Eugene Logan said.
