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ABC News (AU)
· collected 2026-10-07 · by Elsie Lange and Meredith Lake
Costa Georgiadis, known as Costa the Garden Gnome from an Australian gardening show, visits Utju/Areyonga to help plant fruit trees with local children as part of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures program. The initiative aims to improve access to fresh produce in remote communities where food costs are high. Using specialized pots designed for desert conditions, Costa and scrapboy (from the animated series Dirtgirlworld) teach about gardening in a circular economy approach, engaging around 15 children in planting avocado, fig, and mulberry seedlings.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-07,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
Costa Georgiadis, known as Costa the Garden Gnome from Australian television, along with Scrapboy from the animated series *Dirtgirlworld*, visited the remote Pitjantjatjara-speaking community of Utju / Areyonga in late 2023. The pair were part of the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures program supported by the MacDonnell Regional Council, aimed at improving nutrition and health among local children. They brought avocado, fig, and mulberry seedlings to plant in an effort to foster sustainable gardening practices and combat food insecurity. The initiative also honors historical figures like late Lutheran Pastor Leo Kelleske, whose contributions to the community's gardens are remembered by its elders. Joy Kunia, a resident of Utju / Areyonga, hopes that these efforts will help sustainably grow fruit trees in her garden using recycled containers such as old washing machine tubs and wheelie bins bottoms. The program addresses the high costs of living in remote areas and seeks to empower communities through self-sufficiency and traditional knowledge preservation.
Written for “Costa The Garden Gnome Project Utju” on 2026-10-07,
grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
In the garden of a yellow brick house that backs onto the ranges and riverbed that wrap around the remote community of Utju / Areyonga, Joy Kunia points to where she hopes a fruit tree will be planted in the soil.
asserted
tree → back → soil
Her garden uses old washing machine tubs and the bottoms of wheelie bins as beds for her flowers — a small-scale, circular economy in the West MacDonnell Ranges, 200 kilometres west of Alice Springs.
asserted
garden → use → Springs
In this yard, date palms stand as tall reminders of the past.
asserted
palms → stand → past
It was once the garden of the late Lutheran Pastor Leo Kelleske, whose grape vines and date trees are recalled through the smiles of the old people here.
asserted
vines → recall → people
And Costa the Garden Gnome, also known as Australian gardening icon Costa Georgiadis, is in the community to help bring those memories back to life — one fruit tree at a time.
asserted
Costa → know → time
A cost-of-living lifeline
Alongside fellow television personality scrapboy, of animated children's series dirtgirlworld, Georgiadis has been travelling through remote Aboriginal communities to deliver the Healthy Kids, Healthy Futures program with the MacDonnell Regional Council.
The pair have come to the tiny Pitjantjatjara-speaking community on Western Arrarnta country with avocado, fig and mulberry seedlings to plant in the ground.
asserted
pair → animate → ground
Fresh fruit and veggies can be impossibly expensive at shops in remote communities, adding an extra layer of meaning to the program.
"It's a real privilege to come in and introduce these ideas, that then their elders and their families can latch on to and take it to that next level of understanding, [of] the growing and the harvest," Georgiadis says.
asserted
Georgiadis → add → growing
After scouting spots for trees, Georgiadis and scrapboy get the kids involved with singing and games.
asserted
kids → scout → singing
About 15 children trail behind Georgiadis in his gnome hat and steampunk-style welding goggles to the schoolyard, crowding around as he holds up a seedling.
asserted
he → trail → seedling
The "two-ways learning" school, which has been teaching in both Pitjantjatjara and English since 1973, has been doing some gardening lessons of their own in their leafy edible garden beds.
asserted
which → teach → beds
Georgiadis shows the children how the roots release from the pot by tapping them with a shovel, before the kids pour water into the soil to ready it for its new leafy tenant.
asserted
kids → show → tenant
They giggle in delight as he squelches the soggy dirt through his hands.
asserted
he → giggle → hands
Desert-proof technology
MacDonnell Regional Council area manager Stuart Millar is responsible for finding the new planter pots Georgiadis is using, which were designed for sandy deserts of the United Arab Emirates to preserve water.
asserted
which → find → water
He says he hopes more fruit trees will be planted in front yards across the community.
asserted
trees → say → community
"It's about as vital as it can be, especially out here in the desert … the more self sufficient, the better it is for everybody," he says.
asserted
he → say → everybody
Areyonga Local Authority chairperson Sarah Gallagher was born here and grew up in the community, where wild donkeys roam across the rocky landscape.
asserted
donkeys → bear → landscape
She watches as tweens Louanne, Geraldine and Sharnita proudly show off their home for the television stars.
asserted
Louanne → watch → stars
Giggling into each other's ears, the girls explain that the word for tree in Pitjantjatjara is "punu", that water is "kapi", and that they need each other to grow.
"They're having fun, enjoying their lives, singing and dancing, and making good plans for the community," Ms Gallagher says.
asserted
Gallagher → giggle → community
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