BRENDAN TREMBATH: As the Federal Government's emergency intervention in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory approaches its fourth anniversary the Prime Minister says she thinks it is working.

The intervention includes measures such as child-health checks and extra police.

Julia Gillard has just completed a three-day tour of Central Australia and the Top End.

Despite her positive assessment of the intervention the Prime Minister has been heckled by a handful of protesters in Darwin, calling for - among other things - an end to the intervention.

Michael Coggan reports from Darwin. 

(Protesters chanting)

PROTESTERS: Stop the racist intervention. Stop the nuclear waste. 

MICHAEL COGGAN: Arriving at Darwin's University to open a new $28 million medical training school, the Prime Minister was greeted by a handful of protesters, voicing opposition to a proposed nuclear waste dump near Tennant Creek and calling for an end to the federal emergency intervention.

One of the reasons she's visited the Territory is to hear the voices of Aboriginal Australians as the Government shapes the next phase of the intervention into 73 Aboriginal communities.

Security managed to keep most of the protesters away from the Prime Minister, while one angry Aboriginal Australian, Larrakia woman June Mills, managed to get Julia Gillard's attention for a few seconds.

JUNE MILLS: I'm 55 years old and I'm still homeless. Alright. All the Larrakia in this country are homeless and it's our land. 

JULIA GILLARD: Thank you. Nice to meet you. 

JUNE MILLS: It's not nice to meet me apparently. 

MICHAEL COGGAN: Afterwards June Mills told me she's facing eviction from public housing and she wants more recognition of the Larrakia people as the traditional owners of Darwin.

JUNE MILLS: I'm 55 years old now and I'm still homeless. My whole family's homeless. We're all under threat of eviction every day of our lives. I want my land and I want my house. And I want the house how I want it. And I want to live how I want within my family structure. 

I want housing that's suitable for families. I want housing that's suitable for Aboriginal people to live the way they want to live in their extended family situations. I want health. I want the intervention to end now. Right, we've had enough of this racism in this country. 

MICHAEL COGGAN: But Julia Gillard says the evidence she's seen and the people she's spoken to over the past three days in the central Australia, eastern Arnhem Land and Darwin, has convinced her that many aspects of the intervention are working.

JULIA GILLARD: I believe the intervention has made a difference. We are seeing things like 7,000 meals being provided to kids in schools each day. Kids being better fed, better clothed because of income management. 

We are seeing reductions in things like aggravated assaults in recent statistics. So I think change is happening. I saw some of that change myself in Alice Springs through the Alice Springs Transformation Plan; new houses being built in town camps, which when we came to government were places of absolute squalor and degradation. 

But more needs to be done. 

MICHAEL COGGAN: The Prime Minister also fended off protests about Federal Government plans to build a nuclear waste dump at Muckaty Station near Tennant Creek.

JULIA GILLARD: I understand that there is disputation about who the traditional owners are. We of course followed the advice of the Northern Land Council, which is the appropriate process for us to follow but this matter is now before courts and of course we will abide by any decision that comes from those court proceedings. 

MICHAEL COGGAN: It's not yet clear whether there will be a second version of the Northern Territory Emergency Response when the current arrangements end in August next year. If there is it's unlikely to be called an "intervention". Over the last three days the word "transformation" has had a good work-out and you can expect to hear it more often.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Michael Coggan reporting from the Northern Territory.