Pam Jackson has 72 children. Or at least that's how many, at one time or another, she has raised as her own. "I've got kids everywhere," she says. "Grandkids and great grandkids, too."
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Northern Victoria is Yorta Yorta country, where the Goulburn meets the Murray, where Mrs Jackson was born and raised. It's where the Aboriginal elder fostered 67 children and had five of her own.
Jackson is proud of all the foster children and says she still keeps in touch with most of them.
Every year on Mother's Day she receives calls and text messages from around the country. Asked how she raised 72 children in 48 years, Jackson says: "Patience."
Today, most have grown up and moved away. And last year, Mrs Jackson decided it was time to do the same. She wanted to be closer to her children in the city. Recently she secured housing in Dandenong, just a couple of streets away from her daughter, Kim.
Mrs Jackson's two-bedroom unit is one of 511 homes in Melbourne that the Andrews government has transferred to Aboriginal Housing Victoria.
She calls the unit her "little mansion."
Over three years, the government will hand over 1448 properties worth more than $500 million to the agency. It is the largest tranche of housing to be transferred to an Aboriginal organisation nationwide, and means the 4000 Victorians on its books will now live in properties that are owned and managed by an Aboriginal organisation.
AHV chief executive Jenny Samms says the landmark move would allow the agency to grow its housing portfolio even further. It can now sell and redevelop properties to better suit the needs of Victoria's fast-growing Aboriginal community and cater for the 1200 families on the social housing waiting list.
"Instead of constantly putting money into responsive maintenance on a lot of these houses that are past their use-by date, we can go in and do major upgrades or make the decision to knock it over and build more units on the block," Ms Samms says.
The housing stock was already being leased to Aboriginal Housing Victoria, which collected rent for the Department of Health and Human Services but was unable to carrying out major works on the deteriorating properties.
Before Mrs Jackson moved into her unit it was painted, repaired and renovated. She has a new kitchen and bathroom and recently planted a garden around the side of the house.
"I'm very lucky to have it," the 66-year-old says. "It's a beautiful unit."
Housing Minister Martin Foley said this was the largest housing ownership transfer in Victoria's history.
He said the initiative put resources into the hands of the Aboriginal community, ensuring they would be managed in a culturally sensitive way. "This is part of the long journey towards treaty," Mr Foley said.
Aboriginal Housing Victoria is now looking ahead to future developments, such as a village for elders, and is developing design principles for new builds that could have subtle differences including Indigenous gardens and Aboriginal colour schemes.
It is also exploring finance options so tenants have the ability to buy the properties they live in, and plans to use the developments as a training ground for Aboriginal youth in search of employment.
"We now have the asset base to not only do small scale developments, but once we're established, really move into bigger projects," Ms Samms says.
"We've got to act responsibly and be very careful and mature and govern well, and we do that. This is our aspiration and we can shape our destiny."
There are more than 53,000 Aboriginals living in Victoria and the population is growing at twice the rate as the non-Indigenous population. Aboriginals are disproportionately represented in homelessness figures.
