Andy Stodulka is a Canberra engineer who thinks outside the box.

He's one of those guys who sees a problem and just has to fix it.

Based in Hume, Andy has been running a business for over forty years, and he provides a wide variety of products and services.

His company—Design Construct—invented a type of re-usable steel framing for pouring concrete floors on multi-story buildings. It might sound basic, but it is the first of its kind, and is in strong demand, especially in Asia and Africa.

Until Andy's product was developed building firms had to make up a plywood formwork frame to pour the concrete for every floor-- a process that was both time consuming and costly.

Andy has a lifelong passion for housing; he's particularly keen on designing simple, cheap housing for people, not just in Australia, but around the world.

"I've always thought the cost of housing was way too high," Andy says.

"Most people in need of housing are looking for shelter—not a mansion"

About twenty years ago, he was approached by some villagers from Malo, an island in the Vanuatu chain in the Pacific.

They wanted to build a school and teacher's accommodation, but the buildings needed to be cyclone rated, and the cost of transporting a bulldozer to the island was cost prohibitive.

Through a Canadian aid organisation, the islanders asked Andy if he could design cyclone-rated buildings that would not require deep concrete footings.

Andy did not invent the mega-anchor, but he developed a form of construction that uses mega anchors to secure buildings to the ground without the need for concrete footings.

There are different types of mega anchors from around the world. Andy used one developed by a Victorian farmer that is made of galvanised pipes.

Imagine a small tripod made with a larger galvanised pipe standing upright and three smaller pipes welded onto it at angles like legs.

You place this tripod on the ground and then, using a jack hammer a special fitting attached (or even as sledgehammer) you ram 1.5 metres of smaller diameter pipe into the ground, sliding one through each of the legs on your tripod.

Once rammed all the way, you tekscrew them to the legs.

And there you have it—a mega anchor that can act as the pillar upon which you can build.

There could be thirty or forty of these mega anchors spaced out under the floor of the building just like concrete brick piers.

"It takes three tonnes to pull one of them out, so you have a secure foundation without the need for excavation, or concrete footings," Andy explains.

"There's no need for heavy excavation equipment or concrete trucks.

"You are not disturbing the soil, so you can build in environmentally sensitive areas without damaging the environment. National parks are using them a lot these days."

Not only did Andy design the building for the islanders, but he also saved them a bundle by helping them build the schoolhouse and accommodation block themselves.

"I know it sounds crazy, but these steel buildings go together like lego," he says.

"The islanders on Malo didn't have any building experience. Naturally enough they were pretty nervous to start with, but once I got them using cordless drills the building shot up.

"That's the beauty of this system. It is simple, anyone who can use a cordless drill and an angle grinder can build a house.

"You need qualified people on hand, of course, to make sure everything is done correctly, but you cut out a big part of the labour."

Andy has worked all over the world on big-money projects, but the schoolhouse on Malo is his favourite.

"The smiles on all their faces were worth a million bucks"

He's enthusiastic to do the same in remote aboriginal communities but is confronted with a depressing silence.

Andy has written to Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, the former Indigenous Australians Minister, Linda Burney, and numerous other pollies across the top end.

He's also reached out to a swag of Aboriginal housing organisations, Aboriginal land councils, and community groups.

What Andy is saying is he can help Aboriginal people in remote communities build their own homes.

He's offering to help them establish small factories to manufacture the materials and set up training groups so that communities can build whatever they need themselves.

Here is a business opportunity: Employment. And what about the self-esteem a venture like this could generate?

I would have thought the benefits of this idea are so obvious someone in the political world, or the bureaucracy, may have stopped for a second and thought, "Gee, this might be worth a try".

How is it that in a country where health workers are raising serious concerns about the destructive impact unemployment is having on the mental health of Aboriginal people in remote communities that no one thinks to get them engaged in building their own homes?

Maybe, it's time we started to think "outside the box".