Remote Australia Online

A simple model of soil moisture balance and herbage production in the arid and semi-arid rangelands of central Australia is presented. The model has few parameters and only requires inputs of rainfall and potential evaporation to model daily soil moisture and plant growth. Five landscape types were studied for over 2 years, and for up to four major growth events, to provide data for estimating parameters in the model. Moisture loss in the 0–500 mm soil profile has been modelled using an negative exponential function which depends on available soil moisture and is driven by daily rainfall and potential evaporation. The growth of herbage, whilst soil moisture is above wilting point, is a linear function of actual evapotranspiration, with the decay of plant material represented by a logistic curve.

Domestic dogs display complex roaming behaviours, which need to be captured to more realistically model the spread of rabies. We have previously shown that roaming behaviours of domestic dogs can be categorised as stay-at-home, roamer and explorer in the Northern Peninsular Area (NPA), Queensland, Australia. These roaming behaviours are likely to cause heterogeneous contact rates that influence the speed or pattern of rabies spread in a dog population. The aim of this study was to define contact spatial kernels using the overlap of individual dog utilisation distributions to describe the daily probability of contact between pairs of dogs exhibiting these three a priori roaming behaviours. We further aimed to determine if the kernels lead to different predicted rabies outbreaks (outbreak duration and number of rabid dogs) by incorporating the spatial kernels into a previously developed rabies spread model for the NPA. Spatial kernels created with both dogs in a pair being explorers or one dog explorer and one dog roamer (who roamed away from their residence) produced short but large outbreaks compared with spatial kernels with at least one stay-at-home dog. Outputs from this model incorporating heterogeneous contacts demonstrate how roaming behaviours influence disease spread in domestic dog populations.

Despite substantial research on grassroots innovation, there is a lack of understanding on the barriers to grassroots innovation. We examine paradoxes that arise as a consequence of multiple, often conflicting, objectives in remote art centres, social enterprises that are key sites for grassroots innovations. We investigate how social, commercial and cultural logics in remote Indigenous art centres contribute to an on-going trilemma that acts as a barrier to the development of grassroots innovation. We also explore the challenges and opportunities managers encounter in reconciling these multiple, often conflicting, logics. The results indicate that although art centres have dual social and commercial missions, cultural differences between Indigenous arts workers, and non-Indigenous managers, contribute to social-commercial tensions that social enterprises experience. This manifests in a social-commercial-cultural trilemma which inhibits grassroots innovation. The results also show this trilemma provides opportunities for arts workers with latent managerial capacity to transition to management and evolve the traditional Indigenous art centre model to Indigenous managed art centres. The research also gives examples of how these trilemmas can be resolved, in particular via working through key Indigenous family groups and by providing better support and mentoring for non-Indigenous art centre managers. In so doing, remote Indigenous art centres are able to serve as special but important sites of grassroots and inclusive innovation by supporting viable development pathways for socioeconomic improvements in remote Indigenous communities in Australia.

This chapter describes the community reactions and divisions occasioned by the World Heritage designations of Shark Bay (1991) and the Ningaloo Coast (2011) in the remote Gascoyne region of Australia. It considers how the reduction of the region’s isolation over the twentieth century, together with the growth of tourism and significant increases in conservation measures and environmental regulation, disrupted the lifestyles of communities which were formerly based around pastoral and fishing activities. The World Heritage designation processes generated considerable local resentment of and resistance to “outside interference”. The chapter uses Jacoby’s concept of moral ecology to interrogate the differing views of and aspirations for the Gascoyne coast held by the protagonists in these processes, and considers how these views have shifted over recent decades.

The poor performance of Australian Indigenous students in mathematics is a complex and enduring issue that needs a range of strategies to enable success in schooling for these students. Importantly, large numbers of teachers in remote Indigenous contexts are new graduates who, although full of enthusiasm, lack experience. Similarly, many of them are unfamiliar with the demands and nuances of teaching in remote and/or Indigenous contexts. This paper explores the nexus between the beliefs and practices of teachers working in a remote, Indigenous region of Australia. In particular, it proposes that the discrepancy between beliefs and practices found in the reconnaissance phase of a design study is due to the teachers realising that they need to implement changed practices to enable students to learn but having little knowledge of what such practices may look like. This finding has implications for pre-service and in-service teacher education.

Heavy grazing can cause a long-term reduction in the capacity of vegetation to respond to rain particularly after drought. One potential cause is a lack of soil seed reserves. We found that the size and composition of the germinable seed bank in arid calcareous grazing lands were changed where there had been several decades of heavy grazing, including a period of drought, but not when grazing was lighter, time was shorter and drought was absent. The same was true for the species numbers and composition in the standing herbage. Seed reserves were persistent and ‘moderately similar’ in species composition to the standing herbage at a broad level (Sorenson similarity index 60% and 66%). Similarity was likely to be strongly affected by prevailing seasonal conditions and so should be assessed over several years.

People living in rural and remote areas have poorer ocular health outcomes compared with those living in metropolitan areas. Reasons for this are multiple and complex but access to care is consistently reported as a defining factor. The geographic maldistribution of eye-care professionals is a major obstacle for regional, rural and remote Australians seeking care. Research from the medical profession suggests adopting the ‘rural pipeline’ concept to address the issue of maldistribution. This approach appears to have had some success in medicine, and involves recruiting students from a rural background, exposing students to rural practice through placements and offering graduates incentives and support to practice rurally. Lessons could be learnt from the medical field as there is a dearth of literature describing the utilisation of the rural pipeline in allied health. However, given the differences between professions it cannot be assumed factors and results will be the same. A greater understanding is required to determine whether optometry is a profession which may benefit from the rural pipeline concept.

Anecdotal reports have linked cannabis use to violence in some remote Australian Aboriginal communities. We examine the relationship between cannabis use and presentations to local clinics for violence-related trauma at a population level. As part of a larger study, estimates of cannabis and alcohol use status were obtained for 264 randomly selected individuals aged 14–42. These estimates were collected from Aboriginal health workers and respected community informants using a previously validated approach. Clinic records for the sample were audited for physical trauma presentations between January 2004 and June 2006. One in 3 individuals (n = 88/264) presented to the clinic with physical trauma. Of these, the majority (65.9%, n = 58/88) had at least one presentation that was violence-related. Nearly 2 in every 3 of the total presentations for trauma following violence (n = 40/63) involved the use of a weapon. Hunting tools were most often used, followed by wooden or rock implements. Individuals who reported any current cannabis use were nearly 4 times more likely than nonusers to present at least once for violent trauma after adjusting for current alcohol use, age, and sex (OR = 3.8, 95% CI [1.5, 9.8]). Aboriginal individuals in these remote communities experience high rates of physical trauma and violence, often involving weapons. A comprehensive study is needed to explore the association between cannabis and violence. At the same time, an investment in local programmes is needed to address cannabis use and underlying risk factors for substance use and for violence.

Establishing vegetation on disturbed sites in arid environments is difficult due to decreased water availability caused by altered soil properties: depth, compaction, and hydraulic characteristics. Plants cope with moisture stress through a combination of traits, including physiological strategies such as anisohydry and isohydry. We used a typical mine restoration substrate in a glasshouse pot experiment to investigate drought tolerance of nine Pilbara region Acacia species classified according to habitat preferences defined by preferred soil type: alluvial (fine textured), sandy, rocky, and generalists without a clear soil preference. Seedlings were examined to (1) determine physiological shoot, and morphological shoot and root traits associated with drought tolerance, and (2) identify if these traits were correlated with species’ soil preferences. Species from alluvial, rocky, and one sandy soil species were more anisohydric. These species had higher stomatal conductance at more negative leaf water potentials. Alluvial soil species had greater total biomass allocation to lateral roots, whereas two coarser textured soil species had high allocation to tap roots. Soil preference was a poor predictor of plant water relations, presumably due to complex soil profiles in nature associated with widely differing hydraulic characteristics, and interactions among plant functional traits influencing water uptake, transport and loss.

Understanding the spatial and temporal patterning of biota is critical to conserving biodiversity in arid regions. For mammals and reptiles, rainfall and fire are important forces determining patterns. Few studies consider these factors for invertebrates and even fewer over an extended period. Spiders were pitfall trapped over 14 years (1989–2003) as part of an experimental fire study in the Great Victoria Desert, Western Australia. Spider abundance decreased immediately after fire, but yearly variation confounded the interpretation of results. Species richness showed no clear pattern in response to fire. Spider species composition showed significant changes between sampling months and between burnt and long unburnt samples within the months of March and December, but not October. Rainfall appears the dominant driving force in this system with less pronounced fire effects. High rainfall during the previous February–April was correlated with increased spider abundance in March samples the following year. Given the highly seasonal structure of spider assemblages, favourable weather during mating and juvenile development may increase recruitment the following season. We conclude that to be successful in conserving biodiversity in arid Australia by re-instating anthropogenic fire regimes, it is vital to understand the mediating impact of rainfall.

At any one time, more than 160 million children worldwide are infected with skin sores. In remote Aboriginal Australian communities, prevalence is as high as 40%. Skin sores infected with Group A Streptococcus (GAS) can lead to a number of acute and chronic health conditions. One of the primary risk factors for GAS infection is scabies, a small mite which causes a break in the skin layer, potentially allowing skin sore infection to take hold. This biological connection is reaffirmed by the observation that mass treatment for scabies in these remote communities has been associated with a reduction in the prevalence of skin sore infection, despite skin sores not being directly targeted. In the most extreme case, it has been hypothesised that the eradication of scabies in remote communities may lead to an eradication of skin sore related infection. Mass drug administration is the go-to solution for tackling the high prevalence of disease in these rural settings, but despite more than 20 years of implementation, sustained reductions in prevalence have not been achieved. My aim in this thesis is to develop and analyse both mechanistic and statistical models of skin sores and scabies, considering the dynamics of each disease in isolation and coupled together. These models build a framework on which control strategies can be tested, with the aim to develop strategies that will lead to sustained prevalence reductions. Following a biological introduction and technical information (Chapters 1 and 2), a mechanistic model for scabies infection is introduced. This model includes the dynamics of the life-cycle of the scabies mite, incorporating two methods of treatment for the infection. Mass drug administration strategies are also modelled. The optimal interval between successive mass drug administration (MDA) doses is calculated to be approximately two weeks. The analysis shows that an optimally timed two-dose, 100% effective, 100% coverage MDA is highly unlikely to lead to the eradication of scabies. In fact, four optimally timed successive doses are required for a probability of eradication greater than 1/1000. Next, an annually recurring MDA program is considered, in which some number of optimally timed doses is administered, and repeated annually. It is shown that increasing the number of administered doses always increases the probability of eradication. Importantly, moving from a two dose to a three dose annual strategy significantly increases the probability of eradication of scabies infection. In order to parameterise a dynamic transmission model for skin sores, at least two key quantities must be estimated: the force of infection, and the infectious period. The study in Chapter 4 estimates the age of first infection, which is the inverse of the force of infection, using clinic presentation data of children from birth up to five years age. Three survival models are considered: the Kaplan-Meier estimator, the Cox proportional hazards model, and the parametric exponential mixture model. The mean age of first infection is estimated to be ten months for skin sores, and nine months for scabies. The work in Chapter 5 estimates both the force of infection and the infectious period by utilising a linearised infectious disease model. The data considered in this chapter consists of longitudinal observations of individuals across three studies. The methodology is verified using simulation estimation, and each dataset tested to ensure it carries sufficient information for use with the estimation method. The estimates for the force of infection vary by an order of magnitude between settings. Estimates of the infectious period are relatively constant at 12 − 20 days. Chapter 6 consists of a dynamic model for skin sores transmission coupled with models for scabies transmission. Three different scabies models are considered. The first assumes that the dynamics of scabies are at equilibrium. In this case, analytical expressions for key epidemiological quantities can be derived, and values for the scabies prevalence below which skin sores will be eradicated can be calculated. Next, two dynamic models of scabies are considered. The first of these is the scabies model introduced in Chapter 3, which includes the full life-cycle of the scabies mite and treatment mechanisms. The second model consists of just three compartments, which is termed the SITS model. The SITS model approximates the complex life-cycle of the scabies mite into two compartments. The differences in dynamics between these two scabies models are analysed, and the impact on the prevalence of skin sores of an MDA which directly targets only scabies is considered. The comparison shows that, relative to the full model, the SITS model overestimates the impact on skin sores prevalence due to the MDA in the time period immediately following the MDA, but also predicts an earlier time of return to pre-MDA endemic infection prevalence. The SITS model also estimates a higher probability of eradication of skin sores compared to the full model. These two results demonstrate that caution should be taken when approximating the life-cycle of the scabies mite to consider the potential impact of MDA which targets only scabies. Finally, Chapter 7 summarises the work presented in my thesis, discusses the limitations of the work and explores potential future directions for this research problem.

Background: Primary, specialist, and allied health services can assist in providing equitable access in rural and remote areas, where higher proportions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Aboriginal Australians) reside, to overcome the high rates of chronic diseases experienced by this population group. Little is currently known about the location and frequency of services and the extent to which providers believe delivery is occurring in a sustained and coordinated manner. Objective: The objective of this study will be to determine the availability, accessibility, and level of coordination of a range of community-based health care services to Aboriginal people and identify potential barriers in accessing health care services from the perspectives of the health service providers. Methods: This mixed-methods study will take place in 3 deidentified communities in New South Wales selected for their high population of Aboriginal people and geographical representation of location type (coastal, rural, and border). The study is designed and will be conducted in collaboration with the communities, Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services (ACCHSs), and other local health services. Data collection will involve face-to-face and telephone interviews with participants who are health and community professionals and stakeholders. Participants will be recruited through snowball sampling and will answer structured, quantitative questions about the availability and accessibility of primary health care, specialist medical and allied health services and qualitative questions about accessing services. Quantitative data analysis will determine the frequency and accessibility of specific services across each community. Thematic and content analysis will identify issues relating to availability, accessibility, and coordination arising from the qualitative data. We will then combine the quantitative and qualitative data using a health ecosystems approach. Results: We identified 28 stakeholder participants across the ACCHSs for recruitment through snowball sampling (coastal, n=4; rural, n=12; and border, n=12) for data collection. The project was funded in 2017, and enrolment was completed in 2017. Data analysis is currently under way, and the first results are expected to be submitted for publication in 2019. Conclusions: The study will give an indication of the scope and level of coordination of primary, specialist, and allied health services in rural communities with high Aboriginal populations from the perspectives of service providers from those communities. Identification of factors affecting the availability, accessibility, and coordination of services can assist ways of developing and implementing culturally sensitive service delivery. These findings could inform recommendations for the provision of health services for Aboriginal people in rural and remote settings. The study will also contribute to the broader literature of rural and remote health service provision.

The topic of this paper is a striking intonation contour which is found in English on Croker Island, NT, Australia, which is labelled Linear Lengthening Intonation. This contour is formally characterized by a prolonged stretch of high pitch, either in a plateau or rise, concluded by a high boundary tone, typically with lengthening of the final syllable nucleus. The meaning attached to this tune is essentially quantificational, and appears to apply mostly to the run traces of events. While this contour is not found in other varieties of English in this form, it is common in many northern Australian Aboriginal languages, among them languages spoken on Croker Island which have been in contact with English for several generations. In this paper we compare the form and meaning of this tune in Iwaidja, one of the main languages in contact with English on Croker Island, and in local English. Due to substantial parallels and due to the contact situation that is characterized by prolonged bilingualism in a long–term shift scenario, we propose that Linear Lengthening Intonation in English on Croker Island is probably due to language contact with Australian Aboriginal languages that have this tune, most notably Iwaidja.

Aquatic ecosystems in arid environments provide important refugia and ‘stepping-stones’ of connectivity for aquatic fauna. Aquatic ecosystems in central Australia are vulnerable to degradation due to the impacts of invasive herbivores such as camels, which degrade small desert waterbodies through drinking, trampling, and fouling with dung. In this study we assessed the impacts of camel dung on the water quality and macroinvertebrate colonization and community composition of small arid zone freshwater pools using experimental mesocosms. Camel dung (2 kg) was added to half the mesocosms (the treatment), the remaining mesocosms (without camel dung) acted as the controls. All mesocosms were sampled weekly for water quality, nutrients, chlorophyll a and macroinvertebrate richness and abundance, over an eight week period during summer. Macroinvertebrate abundance was higher in the control mesocosms in comparison to the treatment mesocosms. Pollution tolerant taxa such as mosquito larvae were common in treatment mesocosms, while sensitive fauna, such as larval mayflies and dragonflies were more common in the controls. The latter are predators and appeared to have a major influence on community composition. Our results reinforce the need for active management of invasive herbivores to protect aquatic biodiversity and to manage potential disease-vector species in central Australia waterbodies.

Broad-scale climatic factors, such as rainfall, have a major control upon Australian dust storms. There is a non-linear relationship of increasing dust storms with aridity, peaking at 200 mm and decreasing for lower rainfalls. Both the spatial and temporal occurrences of dust storms are strongly influenced by drought.

Dust storms occur over large areas of arid and semi-arid Australia and are responsible for eroding large quantities of topsoil, yet the climatic controls on their occurrence are poorly understood. The Et Index of wind erosion, described here, uses readily available meteorological data to identify two major wind erosion regions in eastern Australia and describes seasonal controls of wind conditions and soil moisture upon dust storm occurrence. These results provide a better understanding of the drought–dust storm relationship in Australia, and the model has applications in broadscale wind erosion studies in the arid and semi-arid developing world.

The abundance of Australia's arid zone vertebrates is typically driven by fluctuations in rainfall, which dictate productivity across functional groups. Many species fluctuate from highly abundant during high rainfall periods to low abundance during low rainfall periods. Although these fluctuations are well documented, little is known regarding the factors affecting fauna persistence during periods of low rainfall. We examined the relationship between several influential factors and the richness and abundance of nocturnal small mammal and reptiles in the spinifex sand plains of central Australia. The study was conducted during a period of low rainfall following the decline of most vertebrate species in the area. Mammals showed species-specific responses, with varying dependencies on cover and climatic factors, whilst reptiles showed a surprisingly limited response to resource abundances and rainfall. The most consistent factor associated with small mammal and reptile abundances was the presence of large predators. Cats had greater suppressive effects on small mammals whilst reptiles declined with greater wild dog presence. These results likely represent a combination of selective foraging and seasonal fluctuations in activity of the two predators. Our results highlight the importance of controlling predator numbers during low rainfall periods to reduce their potential suppressive effects.

Current knowledge on the life history of Australia's arid zone invertebrates is sparse. From the studies conducted in arid zones globally, the primary drivers of invertebrates are thought to be climate, particularly temperature and rainfall. In Australia, a limited number of studies have shown vegetation and inter-species interactions are also highly influential. We investigated the effects of multiple potential drivers on ground-dwelling invertebrates in the spinifex sand plains of central Australia. The study was conducted during a period of low rainfall immediately following several years of higher than average rainfall. Results supported the trends found globally, with rainfall and temperature the most consistent drivers. Vegetation cover was not found to be an important driver; however increased abundance of large vertebrate predators coincided with greater abundance of many invertebrate orders. Areas supporting greater invertebrate abundances likely attract predators, particularly during periods when resources are low, and potentially play an important role in sustaining their populations during these periods. No suppressive effects were found, indicating many invertebrates can withstand the higher predator pressure apparent during low rainfall periods. This study highlights the important roles invertebrates play in ecosystem functioning and a need to gain a greater understanding of this little known group.

An experiment in both form and content, the essay lightly adopts an Australian storytelling style to perform its material as it narrates a road trip across central Australia. Arriving at the Daly Waters Pub in the Northern Territory, the travellers are taken by surprise by the strange décor. It is a place made significant by the multiple ‘authorships’ of hundreds of tourists. Visitors have left not only ID cards, pictures, and signatures, but also flags, number plates, thongs, caps, and bras. We analyse these traces left by travellers as objects of exchange that signify people’s desire to mark a place and use this phenomenon to introduce the idea of a complementary concept to that of the ‘souvenir’, and which we call ‘survenir’. The palimpsest effect of these survenirs (since none is erased) introduces time by accretion, rather than by chronology. The sociality generated through ‘survenirs’ is not just among humans but among all sorts of things, concepts and affects that assemble to create Daly Waters Pub as a tourist destination made not for, but by, its visitors. It is a materially interactive site composed by them.

the Strategy aims to address the following goals: • Easy access and contact with the NDIA. • Effective, appropriate supports available wherever people live. • Creative approaches for individuals within their communities. • Harnessing collaborative partnerships to achieve results. • Support and strengthen local capacity of rural and remote communities. NDIA work is guided by the approach of – listen, learn, build and deliver and our five values: • Assurance. • Empowerment. • Responsibility. • Learning. • Integrity.

Arid environments can support the seemingly unlikely coexistence of species tolerant of, or sensitive to, dry soil moisture. Here, we examine water-use and carbon-gain traits in two widespread tree species in central Australia: Acacia aptaneura and Eucalyptus camaldulensis. The former has a shallow root distribution and relies on soil moisture, while the latter is groundwater dependent. We hypothesised that A. aptaneura would exhibit a suite of characteristics that confer tolerance to low soil moisture, in contrast to E. camaldulensis. Consistent with our hypotheses A. aptaneura was relatively more anisohydric than E. camaldulensis (seasonal leaf water potential of −7.2 to −0.8 MPa cf. −1.4 to −0.3 MPa). Additionally, compared to E. camaldulensis, A. aptaneura had lower water potential at turgor loss (−2.5 cf. −1.1 MPa); a larger Huber value; smaller, narrower and thicker phyllodes/leaves; and larger photosynthetic capacity (Jmax); and larger water-use efficiency. Further, water-use efficiency for E. camaldulensis was similar to species receiving annual rainfall of 1500 mm, despite annual rainfall of 348 mm. We conclude that mean annual rainfall is the dominant determinant of water and carbon relations for A. aptaneura, but not E. camaldulensis. This has important implications for ecosystem-scale transpiration and primary productivity across this arid zone.

Critical commentary about the Northern Territory Emergency Response (NTER) has included the claim that the media presented a simplistic and stereotyped image of Aboriginal communities at the time of its introduction in 2007, but to date there has been no systematic analysis to support this. This study addresses this research gap through a critical discourse analysis of reportage of the NTER in mainstream and Aboriginal populist print media. The findings reveal major differences in these accounts, with radically different propositions and normative assumptions. Mainstream media were overwhelmingly negative in their portrayal of remote Aboriginal communities, were silent about Aboriginal resistance and portrayed urgent Commonwealth intervention as necessary and heroic. The Aboriginal media provided contextualised accounts of the issues and focused intensely on the human rights implications of the intervention. The findings reveal a concerning racialised divide in representations of the issues facing remote Aboriginal communities in 2007 that helps to explain why the Australian public accepted policies that discriminated against Australia’s First Nations peoples.

This article draws on work with communities in the rural and remote towns of Brewarrina, Wilcannia and Enngonia, New South Wales (NSW) to explore the relationship between low adult literacy levels and the continuing alienation of Aboriginal communities from educational decision making. Building on the analysis of community-school relations conducted by scholars such as Jay Phillips, Allan Luke and Kevin Lowe, we contend that it is exceedingly difficult to address the problems which prevent more productive relationships between communities and schools in widespread and sustainable ways, without also addressing the problem of low adult literacy. Communities who have participated in the Yes, I Can! Aboriginal Adult Literacy Campaign help us to understand a number of important issues, including, the extent of disenfranchisement that is associated with inadequate adult literacy, the enormity of the challenges faced by previously low-literate and disengaged people to re-engage in community life, the additional pressures placed on literate members of the community when many people have minimal literacy, and the relationship between low rates of adult literacy and the persistence of deficit thinking on the part of schools.

Australia's Commonwealth Government communications funding programs are promoting the extension of internet services to remote Indigenous communities via shared community facilities. Meanwhile, mainstream delivery programs have largely moved on to focus on individual users. Indigenous Australians are far less likely to access the Internet within the home than non-Indigenous Australians, suggesting that Australia's 'digital divide' is not simply a matter of access, but the context within which access occurs. The Commonwealth's National Broadband Strategy aims to place broadband communications at the centre of a new digital economy. As the benefits of fast Internet become more tangible, the stakes for those who do not have affordable access also increase. In this article we set out a case for reconsidering the notions of public and private in terms of internet infrastructure, access and use. Employing policy analysis, available home internet data and a survey of community-based ICT projects, this article investigates the relationship of broadband policy and other infrastructures, including the politics of housing and 'township', as well as economic and social factors.

Background:Australia has a significant mal-distribution of its limited dental workforce. Outside the major capital cities, the distribution of accessible dental care is at best patchy.Objective:This study applied geo-spatial analysis technology to locate gaps in dental service accessibility for rural and remote dwelling Australians, in order to test the hypothesis that there are a few key location points in Australia where further dental services could make a significant contribution to ameliorating the immediate shortage crisis.Method:A total of 2,086 dental practices were located in country areas, covering a combined catchment area of 1.84million square kilometers, based on 50 km catchment zones around each clinic. Geo-spatial analysis technology was used to identify gaps in the accessibility of dental services for rural and remote dwelling Australians. An extraction of data was obtained to analyse the integrated geographically-aligned database.Results:Resolution of the lack of dental practices for 74 townships (of greater than 500 residents) across Australia could potentially address access for 104,000 people. An examination of the socio-economic mix found that the majority of the dental practices (84%) are located in areas classified as less disadvantaged. Output from the study provided a cohesive national map that has identified locations that could have health improvement via the targeting of dental services to that location.Conclusion:The study identified potential location sites for dental clinics, to address the current inequity in accessing dental services in rural and remote Australia.