The health of Aboriginal Australians remains poor despite improvements over the past decade. Aboriginal life expectancy is at least 20 years less than that of the Australian population overall. The wastage of fetal and infant life is three times that of non‐Aborigines.1Available data on Aboriginal childhood morbidity indicates a seemingly unchanging pattern of ill‐health; poor growth performance with widespread mild‐to‐moderate protein‐energy malnutrition2and high prevalance rates for infections of the upper and lower respiratory tract,3,4gastrointestinal tract,5eyes6and skin.7We may have reached a state of diminished returns where blind expenditure on health delivery will not secure any major imp