The Queensland Aboriginal community of Napranum on the state's western Cape York says it is charting its own path to tackle disadvantage, with remarkable results.

Napranum has long been considered one of Queensland's most disadvantaged communities, but in just three years, it has had a big turnaround, significantly increasing jobs and infrastructure.

Despite being a short drive from the wealthy mining town of Weipa, Napranum was poor and over-crowded.

In 2011, the community engaged a consultant to help it develop its own 10-year vision.

The community has since created at least 40 new jobs, got young people into training, and built infrastructure now owned by the community, including more than 30 homes, a new supermarket, a daycare centre and a war memorial.

Elder Mary Ann Coconut has lived in Napranum for 70 years. She said she had witnessed a powerful transformation in the past few years.

"For a start, with child safety, we had children in the safe house but we haven't got any children there now, so the parents are looking after their children," she said.

"It's nice to see the infrastructure, buildings and everything here, but the main thing is building your self-esteem within you - that's the mindset that changes everything when you start to think differently.

"Because what's the use of having all the nice buildings, and within yourself you haven't changed?

"That's the big change, when you see the change in the people themselves."

Designing a 10-year vision

Annalise Jennings helped design the community's 10-year vision, applying her 'whole of community change' philosophy.

"It's underpinned by community ownership and self-determination and there's a self belief in the people that they can do anything - that really is the starting point," she said.

Elder Mary Ann Coconut and consultant Annalise Jennings at Napranum. ( ABC News: Sharnie Kim )

"The program finds its balance between building an economic base for the community but also building the spiritual wellbeing of the people, so that as infrastructure starts to be created in the community, that there's a will, a desire, a community pride, where everybody gets involved and participates."

Ms Jennings ran workshops with more than 100 people from a broad cross-section of the community from youth, workers and parents.

"A couple of young adults said to me, 'oh Annalise, nothing's ever going to happen around here' - there was almost a sense of 'oh, what's the point?'

"But what I see now... people are excited, people are happy. The sports oval is full of families and kids.

"There's a new buzz in the community, that's what I'm really feeling.

"It's evidenced by the amount of infrastructure and buildings that are coming up around the community as well."

Ms Coconut has since adopted Ms Jennings as a daughter of her tribal lands.

"We honour her by giving her an Aboriginal name," Ms Coconut said.

"It's called Kili, which means the lorikeet or parrot with beautiful bright feathers, coloured feathers, because we think of her as a nice bright happy person."

Ms Jenning said the community had achieved or started work on more than 90 per cent of its goals.

She said the leadership of the local council and support from the Queensland Government had been instrumental in the program's success.

Community-owned infrastructure plan

A key component of Napranum's 10-year plan was creating economic opportunities.

The council entered into a joint venture to take on Government construction contracts, so it could build the facilities it needed while training local people to become tradesmen.

Naprunum Mayor Philemon Mene said the council tailored the programs to make sure local workers could build homes from scratch, rather than just fitting them out or doing maintenance and repair work.

Workers at Napranum, with tradesman Dick Namai (second from right) and Mayor Philemon Mene (far right). ( ABC News: Sharnie Kim )

He said local workers were renovating the civic centre, building new council chambers, more houses, a library and art gallery.

"We were given an opportunity to show that can we build our own homes, can we provide employment, can we be transparent and accountable with government funding, and we've done that," he said.

"We started to engage with the people and with Government of course and the jobs started to roll in and the investments and everything else.

"Our people started to say, 'hey, this is great - I'm busy, I'm working'.

"The whole social life within the community, the fabric changed - there's happiness again in the community."

Resident Dick Namai has gone from being in trouble with the law, to becoming a qualified tradesmen with apprentices working under him.

"Just adds to the whole kind of person you want to be really - responsible at work and home," he said.

"I'm here for the long run - eventually I'll be moving up to a project manager role and managing those under me.

"You can see the evidence of our hard work and cooperation together - it's really good and really fruitful, as you can see."

State Government backing

Cook MP and Assistant Indigenous Affairs Minister David Kempton said the State Government was trying to support Napranum to achieve its goals, rather than try to control it.

He said what was happening in the township was part of a wider push to transition public services like construction and maintenance, and primary healthcare to Indigenous communities.

"People keep saying to me there's no economy in these communities," Mr Kempton said.

"This was one of the things in the Forrest Report where it was recommended that people be taken from the community and offered work somewhere else.

"There's a huge economy in these communities just in what we spend as a government.

"So if we can transition those services over and those delivery of that infrastructure, for example: all the government buildings could be maintained by a local group of workers rather than flying people in and flying out."

Mr Kempton said Napranum championed its own change through self-determination, achieving the greatest transformation of any Cape York community so far.

Children at Napranum's new supermarket. ( ABC News: Sharnie Kim )

"There was always an assumption that Napranum was doing okay because it was sitting next to Weipa, which is very wealthy town," Mr Kempton said.

"But in fact it was like a poor suburb - it was overlooked by a lot of government funding and programs because everyone assumed it was doing fine, whereas in fact it was regressing.

"The council had a blue tarp over the roof, there was no store, the school had been closed, the town was in decline.

"There's still domestic violence, there's still youth disconnect, but the change not only in real terms, but the community's perception of itself, has really changed.

"It's going to take time, but in two years it's not rose-tinted at all - it's real, you can go see it for yourself."

He said the houses that had been built by the community were still in really good condition.

"Nobody damages them because they respect them because they own them," Mr Kempton said.

"It's not rocket science - it's just taking away prohibition, taking away penalty, and replacing it with community opportunity.

"But with every opportunity we have to give responsibility, and that's where the community's come to its fore - it's actually taken responsibility."

Going forward for self-responsibility

Councillor Mene said it was sometimes difficult to convince government that the community was ready to take on more responsibility.

Sorry, this video has expired Self-determination key to change in Cape York township's fortune ( Sharnie Kim )

"It took a lot of charge and a lot of convincing and a lot of work with our people on the ground to say 'we can do it if we're given the opportunity', and the results are there - they speak for themselves," he said.

His goal was for Napranum to become like any other small regional town in Australia.

One of his hopes was to develop the town's beachfront by building an esplanade, new boat ramp and tourist accommodation, to capture the overflow of visitors from nearby Weipa.

"We need that revenue base, we need an economic base, we need to capture the overflow from the resorts in town, the accommodation," Cr Mene said.

"I see it from time to time - at the peak of the tourist season, there's nowhere to stay.

"Well, why can't we have a resort here? Why can't we have a caravan campervan park here? Why can't we have a hardware store facility out here. Why can't we have a smash repair. Why can't we have businesses out here that can employ our people."

He said his people needed proper wages, and a resolution of tenure issues to allow home ownership,

"We're wanting to have a complete paradigm shift and cause our people to say 'hey, we have value, we are people, and we have the right to live, live as normal Australians and be a town, not just a fringe-dwellers'," he said.

Self-driven welfare reform

It comes as the Federal Government considers tough measures such as cuts to welfare payments to break the cycle of poverty and disadvantage in many Indigenous communities.

But Cr Mene said Aboriginal people were capable of self-driven change, if given the chance.

"If you bring understanding to the heart of people and you have that rapport with the people then they would pretty much understand that 'hey, if I don't change now, I'll be forced to change'," he said.

"But yet you have that power within you to make that change happen without being forced to change, and I would prefer to take that approach"

Mr Kempton said he would be concerned about expanding some welfare reform measures across all communities.

"I think wherever I see 'P' - as in punishment, penalty or prohibition - I think we're just going the wrong way," he said.

"It's never worked and it won't - we need to raise people's awareness.

"If Napranum's shown anything, it's that you have to work with the individual community for its plan.

"There's just no one solution to solve this problem that can be implemented right across the country.

"So I'd be just asking [Prime Minister] Tony Abbott and others to come up and sit down and talk to these - not just the mayors, but the traditional owners and the community leaders - about where they want to go.

"It's their community and we certainly don't have the answers."

Ms Coconut said Napranum's plan for itself was working.

"It should be the same throughout Australia. It has to be their choice and they have to be willing to accept whatever is happening, to see the change," she said.