There is something special about the kids at Bidyadanga, Australia’s largest remote indigenous community, 165km south of Broome. They swim like champions at the local pool, love their fresh fruit and are noticeably fit and healthy, spending much of their time at the treasured community hub with their families. It’s a trend that’s been happening over two generations and 26 years at Bidyadanga and across the Kimberley, initiated and expanded by Royal Life Saving Society WA and their two dedicated pool Managers.
Linda and Scott Kendall first lived in Bidyadanga in 2008 and their Swim for Fruit initiative started when they were talking with 12 and 13 year olds at a loose end toward the end of the season. They suggested they would give fruit to any kid who swam a certain number of laps and Scott remembers how the kids literally dived in.
"At that stage, fruit was hard to come by and expensive and the kids loved it more than lollies. We trialled a program of ten laps for a piece of fruit, run over a month, with other prizes at the end. The kids loved it and swam hundreds of laps. Royal Life Saving saw the remarkable value and applied for Healthway funding and then rolled it out to five remote communities,"
Fast forward 18 years and Healthway is still on board and Linda and Scott are in a second stint of managing the pool, which they open 6 days a week from September to May, 5.30 am to 7pm. There is something for everyone with baby and toddler sessions, dedicated lap times, women’s exercise sessions, Bronze medallion training, school carnivals and weekly night swims with music. It’s also become one of the few places young people can get work experience and always have healthy food options.
"At the kiosk we don’t sell soft drinks or chocolates but great healthy alternatives like popcorn and pea snap crisps and filling cheese toasties. We also will try and see what people like by offering them taste tests. And right now we are selling out of our new healthy fizz - coconut water with 5% mango juice.”
"We’ve upgraded what’s on offer for Swim for Fruit too, by getting a slushie machine. So while you still get a band signalling a piece of fruit for every ten laps, you can also get a small fruit and coconut water slushie for every 30 laps. Often the kids will bank up their fruit and keep swimming till they have multiple bands and then cash them in for a slushie. And that means they’re doing 40 – 50 laps at a time."
All of this has made the pool a place where it’s natural to talk about health and food. Linda said in yarning with the kids she’ll mention conditions like diabetes and the link to sugar because she knows their relatives often have to live in Broome for dialysis – something which makes an impact when the kids understand the connection.
And Linda and Scott are seeing how embedding these habits early is making a difference in the long term. "The kids are so healthy. The girl who won the overall award this season had swum 450 laps over four weeks. You can see they are feeling great mentally and with such a high level of fitness it’s establishing a benchmark that their bodies will always remember."
Case study written by Geraldine Mellet for Healthway
Learn more about the Swim for Fruit program, which now runs in dozens of locations around WA, at the link below.
Swim For Fruit Program
