Remote Australia Online

The impact of camel usage at a small rockhole (‘X’) on the Petermann Aboriginal Land Trust was evaluated from May 2007 through to July 2008. Camel usage and impacts were determined through multiple methods including ground cover, vegetation and macroinvertebrate surveys and through the use of surveillance cameras and depth loggers. Camels appear to use X most heavily in periods when rainfall is scant and more at night than during the day. However, in long periods with little or no rainfall, it appears that camels use X heavily during the day and night and there is little chance for X to re-fill. The low number of macroinvertebrates present during the study period suggests that the aquatic fauna is negatively impacted by the presence of camels, as was the vegetation surrounding X. Shrubs near X showed signs of heavy browsing and the ground cover became denuded of vegetation due to camel browsing and trampling during dry periods. This could lead to long-term alterations in drainage patterns and erosion of the site. Follow-up vegetation and ground cover surveys are needed to better assess these impacts. X was and is a traditional source of drinking water for people travelling through the country. Preliminary microbial analysis indicated that at certain periods X is not suitable for drinking, even if the water itself looks ‘clean’ or clear. The faecal contamination evident was most probably due to camel use of the waterhole. These results have been discussed with traditional owners, but further microbial analyses may be needed for longer-term assessments.

Conservation management of protected areas provides Indigenous people with an opportunity to protect and enhance biodiversity, culture, and build community capacity to sustain livelihoods. Recognition of the important role of Indigenous people in protected area management has seen the Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) Program become the fastest growing sector of Australia’s Natural Reserve System. Entering into an IPA agreement is one of few avenues through which many Indigenous communities can pursue a viable social and economic enterprise with the assets and resources available to them. Using community-based participatory methodology, this research examines the success of the IPA program in creating livelihoods, using the Nantawarrina IPA’s impact on Nepabunna community as a case study. The research supports current literature that states protected area management can create livelihood benefits for communities. In Nepabunna this is notably through increased employment, health from working on country, and increased pride and well being within the community. However, the research also found that to ensure the future sustainability of Nantawarrina IPA, and the subsequent benefits for the Nepabunna community, significant governance issues related to accountability, transparency, and selfdetermination need to be addressed.

Recent research by Hallam, Harper et al (2008) identifies the need to develop standards and pedagogy to effectively integrate e-portfolios into teaching practice. However, there continues to be wide discussion about the role for, place, use and management of, and standards needed for e-portfolios. Investigation into issues such as interoperability, user and assessor training, support, access and privacy remain ongoing (Curyer, Leeson et al, 2007). This paper will provide an overview of a year-long journey with Desart, the Association of Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Centres and an initial cohort of twelve Aboriginal Artworkers in investigating the potential for using electronic tools for skills recognition with Aboriginal Artworkers in Central Australia. This opportunity comes as a Northern Territory Flexible Learning Innovations Project funded by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. With the Federal and Territory governments’ focus on creating sustainable Aboriginal employment and economic futures, Art Centres are an important part of the agenda. A significant outcome of this project has been the industry-wide adoption of these tools from what has traditionally been the domain of training providers and some individual employers. This paper will present a review of the key determinants for such an outcome and provide some insights into working with Recognition of Prior Learning, Recognition of Current Competency, Employability Skills and e-portfolio software and the practical issues this project has raised for their use. Project outcomes have suggested ways an e-portfolio approach to skills recognition and evidence/artefact collection can contribute to improved industry engagement in gap-analysis and training negotiation.

Soil organic matter (SOM) was sampled from soil profiles on a near level sandsheet at the southern limit of the Tanami Desert in central Australia to determine if boundaries of Triodia hummock grassland--Acacia aneura shrublands had changed in the Holocene. Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of 16 soil profiles showed that SOM that had accumulated at 100 to 140 cm depth, (near the base of most profiles) had ages between 1175 and 2630 14C years, averaging 1906 14C years. The stable carbon isotopic ({delta}13C) composition of SOM from the upper 50 cm soil profiles in the A. aneura shrubland (inhabited by plants with predominantly C3 photosynthetic pathway) was significantly more 13C-depleted than the comparable soil interval beneath a Triodia grassland (predominantly C4 photosynthetic pathway). Mean age of SOM at 50 cm depth was 830 14C years, suggesting the vegetation has been stable for about 1000 years. However, soil profiles in Triodia grassland adjacent to the shrubland boundary had slightly more depleted {delta} 13C relative to sites >0.5 km from the boundary. With respect to stable nitrogen isotopic values, only surface soils in the Acacia shrublands were found to be 15N-enriched relative to all other soil depths. Although there were no obvious environmental discontinuities, such as change in soil type or slope angle, associated with the ecosystem boundaries, the Acacia shrublands were found to occur on more clay-rich soils with higher concentrations of total phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium compared with the surrounding grasslands, and these trends became more pronounced with increasing distance from the ecotone: it is unclear if these differences are a cause or an effect of the vegetation mosaic. The concordance of the vegetation boundaries with the {delta}13C and {delta}15N and of soil nutrients are consistent with only minor attrition of the A. aneura shrublands in the late Holocene at this site.

Patches of fire-sensitive, closed-canopy Acacia aneura shrubland occur within a matrix of highly flammable Triodia grasslands in central Australia (<400 mm mean annual precipitation). We used digitised repeat aerial photography to chart the dynamics of these mosaics over 52 years (1950–2002). During this period, traditional Aboriginal fire management had largely ceased. The spatial extent of A. aneura shrubland patches varied over the 52-year study period but the aggregated change was small (an increase of 3.1% from 1950 to 2002, with the largest excursion a 13.1% decrease between 1950 and 1983). This change was restricted to within 50 m of boundaries between the shrublands and grasslands. Statistical modelling for the period for which landscape fire activity was available (1980–2002) showed that the dynamism of the boundaries was associated with burning. Fire effects on boundaries were mediated by the size of A. aneura patches, with small patches most likely to contract, explaining the dynamic spatial arrangement of small patches in the landscape. We conclude that a series of reinforcing fire, soil and vegetation feedbacks maintain the mosaic of shrubland patches. However these feedbacks might eventually be overwhelmed by large and sustained changes to fire regimes, leading to the landscape-wide dominance of Triodia grasslands.

Reporting on change in the rangelands is a substantial task. The rangelands cover some 75% of the Australian continent, include some of the most remote places, and support some of the least disturbed landscapes in Australia. It is important that we monitor and understand change in the rangelands, so that we can step in quickly and effectively to maintain or improve ecological, economic and social values. The Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System (ACRIS) is a coordinating mechanism that brings together rangeland information from State, Northern Territory and Commonwealth agencies and other sources. ACRIS has a Management Committee comprising representatives of Australian and State/NT governments and a small Management Unit co-located with the Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in Alice Springs. We report to the Audit Advisory Council on technical issues, and Natural Resource Programs and Policy Committee on issues of policy.

Change is a constant in Australia’s rangelands. Appropriate management of this change requires a sound knowledge of drivers (e.g. climate variability, livestock grazing), their impacts on natural resources (state and trend), socio-economic outcomes, and how these feed back through learning and adaptive management to affect drivers and their impacts. Information is required at scales from enterprise to national, with regional and broader level information serving to influence rangelands governance through institutional arrangements, policy and funding programs. The Australian Collaborative Rangelands Information System (ACRIS) collates and analyses data from national sources and from its State and Territory jurisdictional partners to track and understand change at regional to national scales. ACRIS has recently reported changes between 1992 and 2005 in several biophysical and socio-economic themes at bioregional resolution. This paper describes the processes used to collate and analyse the often disparate data, to synthesise information across data types and to integrate emergent higher order information across drivers, impacts and outcomes to provide more complete understanding of change. Data gaps and inconsistencies were a major challenge, and we illustrate how some of these issues were addressed by using indicators to report changes in biodiversity. ACRIS now needs to foster increased coordinated monitoring activity and develop its reporting capacity to become the valued information system for Australia’s rangelands. We propose that future improvements will be best structured within a hierarchically nested framework that provides consistent overarching data at national scale relevant to the variety of rangeland values (e.g. change in ground cover) but focuses on regionally-relevant ecosystem services, and their appropriate measures, at the regional scale. A key challenge is to implement consistent and systematic methods for monitoring biodiversity within this hierarchical framework, given limited institutional resources. Finally, ACRIS needs to develop a dynamic web-based delivery system to enable more frequent and flexible reporting of interpreted change than is possible through periodic published reports.

The rangelands — popularly known as ‘the outback’ — cover 81% of Australia’s land area (Figure 1). Revenue generated through mining (more than $12 billion annually), tourism (more than $2 billion annually) and agriculture ($2.4 billion in 2001) contributes significantly to Australia’s economy. The rangelands are relatively intact ecosystems and contain important components of Australia’s biodiversity. Additionally, they are home to many Indigenous people and have important cultural value for most Australians. There are many natural resource management challenges in the rangelands. Historical declines in biodiversity may be continuing under current land management practices. Dry years are normal, making it difficult to distinguish the effects of inappropriate grazing practices from the effects of drought. Other pressures include inappropriate fire regimes, weeds, grazing by kangaroos and feral animals, and water extractions and diversions. Governments’ task is to balance economic and social needs with the maintenance of productive land resources and the conservation of biodiversity. Regional investment priorities, national, state and Northern Territory (NT) legislation, and international conventions and strategies all guide the use and management of different parts of the rangelands. The effectiveness of these various policies and investment strategies can only be judged by access to information such as ACRIS is providing. Policies, programs, and on-ground management of natural resources should all be based on the best available data. ACRIS — a partnership between government organisations responsible for rangeland management — is a coordinating mechanism for collating and synthesising information. This report is the first time that disparate datasets (from 1992 to 2005) have been brought together to present integrated results at a national and regional scale for policymakers and managers.

The Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) is an exciting and innovative venture, which has attracted a broad range of excellent researchers and which has real potential to make a difference to the desert region. DKCRC managers and researchers have already made significant inroads in meeting the integrative challenges. This report provides a systematised account of formal knowledge about integration and its application to the work of the DKCRC. A case is made for promoting on-going explicit consideration of integration in the research of the DKCRC, giving the DKCRC the potential to be a world-leader in the application of integrative research strategies.

Premier Coal has been operating in Collie for over 50 years and has a large rehabilitation legacy which is critical to the sustainability drive of the company. In recent times, employment in the energy and power generation sectors in the Collie community has halved, due to major changes in the energy market. Premier Coal is committed to assisting the Collie community address unemployment issues by applying the principle of "value-added" rehabilitation — leaving a positive legacy after mining through developing economic and social diversity sustainability initiatives. These initiatives have been recognised through Premier Coal winning the 2004 national Banksia Award - "Leading Sustainable Mining Practices", the 2004 WA State Award for "Corporate/Business Leading by Example" and the 2005 Golden Gecko Award for Environmental Excellence. Projects are undertaken with individual community working group committees formed to drive initiatives forward. Community, Researcher and Government engagement has been vital in the challenge of transforming rehabilitation projects into a community or on-going commercial ventures. These partnerships have had a profound effect on sorting out technical issues and the legal maze required for development of rehabilitation end uses. The program has been underway for nearly ten years and is focussed on: ∞ Lake Kepwari (Western 5B) Project - converting a mine to recreational lake of 103 hectares; ∞ The Collie Motorplex - recycling mine infrastructure into a motor sports and driver training complex; and ∞ The Western 5H Aquaculture Precinct - for research and economic development.

This thesis explores engagement between Indigenous communities and governments in the Australian context of Country management. Country management describes a blend of Indigenous caring for Country approaches and mainstream natural resource management activities. Engagement refers to interactions and negotiations between Indigenous people and governments, in particular how each tries to communicate with the other and how power dynamics and historical legacies play into this. This qualitative examination of engagement utilises interviews with researchers and practitioners as well as an extensive review of the literature. Assumptions about communities are challenged. Romantic ideals of a homogenous united group are rejected. Instead, I argue for the need to develop an appreciation of the heterogeneous range of individuals caught in ongoing struggles for power and influence. Engagement is about effective and meaningful, two-way interaction. Representation, participation and consultation are examined as different means of engagement, each offering stakeholders differing levels of control over negotiation processes. It is argued that each party has an interest in engaging with the other: Indigenous communities need assistance in dealing with new Country management problems; while governments need Indigenous support to expand and manage the conservation estate. Each party’s understandings and expectations of engagement are explored revealing insights into the frequent miscommunication that occurs at the engagement interface. Examples of engagement processes are examined. Firstly, how Indigenous people have been incorporated into non-Indigenous engagement processes historically, highlighting the one-way intercultural dialogue that has characterised interactions and negotiations from nineteenth century King plates to the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response. This is contrasted to various contemporary examples of strategic choices Indigenous people are making to engage at a variety of spatial levels, from Country planning to regional organisations like NAILSMA, MLDRIN and Congress. These contemporary engagement processes reveal interesting choices Indigenous communities are making to provide legitimacy for both stakeholders; securing legitimacy for Indigenous people by working within contemporary Indigenous governances, while often operating as incorporated bodies to provide assurance for governments. It is argued that effective engagement has a variety of elements. Effective engagement: 1. occurs in a true intercultural space that is sensitive to Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of ‘doing business’; 2. provides options for people to participate according to their interest and capacity; 3. is built on relationships providing foundations of trust and respect; 4. is aware of power dynamics both within and between parties; 5. develops a working understanding of the expectations of each party and is therefore able to ensure engagement processes are legitimate for everyone; and 6. takes place at a level of spatial scale relevant for each party.

Access to affordable and functional housing in remote Indigenous settlements is dependent on successful management and maintenance of essential services infrastructure. Access to these services is a measure of the settlement viability. Together they constitute the principal technical services that need to be sustained in by State and Territory government agencies, Indigenous community organizations and other enterprises. The supply of essential services infrastructure, repairs and maintenance to large Indigenous desert settlements is provided through different arrangements across the various States and Territories delineated on whether the Commonwealth funding is pooled in the jurisdiction. In WA pooled funding into the Remote Area Essential Services Program (RAESP) provides capital, operation and maintenance to 78 large Indigenous settlements and allows supply of capital and emergency repairs to be extended to some smaller settlements (outstations, homelands, emerging communities less than 50 people) by one of 3 Regional Service Providers, which are an Indigenous community organisation or a community-private partnership. In other parts of Australia, Indigenous community councils or local government authorities in larger settlements (Indigenous and non-Indigenous) provide maintenance services to the smaller settlements. However, in these settlements, technical services (minor repairs and maintenance for power, water, sewerage, solid waste) are most often provided by regional Indigenous resource agencies, particularly in WA, NT and SA. The Commonwealth Community Development & Employment Program (CDEP) provides basic wages for Indigenous community members to participate in these activities. While these agencies are the preferred medium of service delivery, with their ‘community development’ focus, their asset management capacities vary considerably. The principal source of funding for these various arrangements was the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services’ (FaCS) Community Housing and Infrastructure Program (CHIP). The overall aim of this Desert Knowledge Cooperative Research Centre (DKCRC) scoping study was to identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for improving the maintenance of essential services in small desert settlements by looking at 12 case studies. An ‘integrated technical services’ model was investigated and a number of initiatives were identified that would contribute to improved maintenance.

This report documents pastoralists’ perspectives on the costs of widespread fires in the pastoral lands of the southern Northern Territory region during 2000–2002. The research involved personal interviews and discussions with pastoralists representing 51 stations in central Australia. The majority of the direct costs of fire were associated with fire suppression activities and damage to infrastructure, but also included risk minimisation activities such as fire-break maintenance. A few pastoralists were also able to estimate some of their indirect costs, such as loss of pasture. The interviews and discussions also provided the opportunity to gather information on the benefits of fire management activities, such as pasture improvement and woody weed control. Additional economic information was collected from other available sources. It proved difficult to document fire-related costs for individual properties. In most cases, specific records were not kept and hazy memories were fading. Direct economic costs experienced by individual pastoral businesses due to the 2000–02 wildfires ranged from zero dollars (where properties remained sunburnt and unaffected by the wildfires) to more than $420 000. For one property badly affected by numerous wildfires over the entire wildfire period, additional costs due to lost potential production and stock turn-off were estimated at more than $2 million. Two contrasting case studies of individual properties are presented where post-fire rainfall was identified as a significant factor associated with the impact of fires, especially in relation to subsequent grazing and stock management. In the first case, infrastructure was damaged but good post-fire rainfall contributed to a positive pasture response in burnt areas which minimised production losses, whereas fire and the absence of post-fire rainfall in the second continued to affect grazing management for the next three years. The research work also provided the opportunity for pastoralists to identify areas of potential research and activities for better fire management. Recommendations: - Improve communications between all stakeholders to encourage greater community participation in regional-scale planning and increase awareness of both positive and negative effects of fire. - Encourage all land managers to record fire information immediately after fires so that information is not lost.

This report provides an overview of fire in central Australia as a context for a regional focus on the southern Tanami Desert. A comparison of two periods of widespread fires, 1974–1977 and 2000–2002, shows a change in the patterns of fire, which have an association with changes in land use, population mobility and distribution. A re-evaluation of the link between fire occurrence and antecedent rainfall confirmed the correlation between area burnt and two-year cumulative rainfall in sub-regional areas in central Australia. The opportunity to burn and the potential for large wildfires increased when the 24-month cumulative rainfall exceeded 120% of the average two-year rainfall for July to June rainyears. A more detailed investigation of fires in the southern Tanami Desert region, based on Landsat satellite images, highlighted the number of fires that occur. Nearly 3000 fires were mapped in an area of only 34 000 km² during the period from July 1997 to March 2005. The majority of fires were small, and nearly 63% of all fires were less than 1 km² in size. Only 2.5% of the fires were greater than 1000 km² but they represented 72% of the total area burnt. The largest area burnt by a single fire exceeded 5700 km². The occurrence of fires was fairly evenly distributed throughout the year, but August to October was the period when fires burnt the largest areas, with September being the peak of fire activity. Discussions with the pastoral community provided an opportunity to report their experiences, issues and attitudes to fire. Pastoralists in the southern Tanami Desert region support the development of a regional fire management strategy and expressed a willingness to participate in this endeavour. Importantly, they stated that it needed to be a collaborative approach developed through cross-sectoral engagement. They also indicated that there was a need for efficiencies and actions to both develop and implement a program which had been lacking to date. Improved communication and an advocate to champion the cause of fire management were needed to achieve a positive result. The essential elements of a southern Tanami Desert fire management strategy are described, as well as the major challenges to be addressed. These include: - implementing effective fire management in remote areas without roads or tracks - dealing with the issue of roadside ignitions without eliminating the importance of most ignitions as signals for assistance - documenting the benefits of improved fire management in both economic and non-economic terms and exploring the opportunities for funding - improving training and skill development in active fire management throughout the community.

People need real opportunities to live the kind of life to which they aspire - to undertake livelihood activities they have reason to value, to achieve good health and well being outcomes, and to have resilience to shocks and stresses. A range of stakeholders consider that economic development is constrained by lack of engagement between Aboriginal people and labour markets, particularly given planned expansion of horticultural and mining operations. Aboriginal people of the Anmatjere region of Central Australia speak their own languages at home, have customary responsibilities for care of the region’s natural and cultural resources, and have low levels of formal mainstream education. They aspire to jobs in their region and are engaged relatively strongly in employment in the community services sector and seasonal work in the pastoral industry, but not in other private sector employment. Their high dependence for income on social security payments and government funded jobs makes their livelihoods vulnerable to changes in government institutions. The modelling work presented in this paper is based on the views, attitudes and experiences of people living in the Anmatjere region about jobs and livelihoods. We have organized these as a collective knowledge representation, using semantic networks. This has elicited understanding of the structure, strength and quality of connections amongst social, economic, environmental and cultural dimensions important in people’s livelihoods. The qualitative data were analysed using (a) natural language processing and linguistic algorithms; (b) exploration of semantic associations among knowledge constructs using a Hopfield-type Artificial Neural Network; and (c) graph-theoretic network analyses. We present the findings of this analysis in light of critical challenges that the Anmatjere community is facing. We show that culturally-explicit local Aboriginal institutions, world views and behaviours play significant and central roles in maintaining the community’s knowledge representations. They connect people and establish the social and cultural roles that are critical in people’s search for opportunity, income and the sustainability of their livelihoods in the region. ‘Top down’ actions including changes to government institutions aimed at enhancing individual Aboriginal people’s engagement with employment have little chance of success unless they take into account the locally and culturally-specific ways in which the community is collectively functioning.

This workshop brought together some 90 experts with a broad range of perspectives and expertise to brainstorm in an informal setting on possible actions and policies that could be included in national sui generis systems for the preservation, protection and promotion of traditional knowledge, innovations and practices (TK) and options for an international framework. It was jointly organized by the Commonwealth and UNCTAD secretariats, in cooperation with the Quaker United Nations Office. Participants in the workshop took part in their individual capacities and discussed the topics as outlined in the programme (Annex 1). The workshop intended to bring some clarity to the various TK-related objectives that policy makers might wish to pursue at national or other levels, and to match objectives with potential tools. The workshop focused in particular on the separate but inter-linked objectives of preserving TK, protecting TK, and promoting TK for development. For each of these objectives, a menu of possible actions was identified. It is envisaged that such a menu would be a useful input to national multi-stakeholder policy dialogues on TK.

New crops are regularly being introduced into cultivation, typically accompanied by a very small agricultural knowledge base. Often, there is a lack of agronomic research information or production experience upon which to rely, nor plant varieties optimised for an agricultural system. The challenges of a new industry may be compounded by a lack of consumer awareness of the new product and value-chain models need to be developed to suit the product. Frequently the plant species being developed into a new crop is one traditionally used as a food source or for medicinal or other applications by Indigenous people. Thus a complex series of additional factors comes into play – consent of the original custodians, respect and acknowledgement of their traditional knowledge that may be exploited, and totemic, kinship and spiritual associations that may be impacted. Establishing benefit sharing for the hereditary stewards, and protection of traditional collective intellectual property is an important ethical consideration. In the 21st century, the previous unjust exploitation of the traditional knowledge of the original custodians without acknowledgement or benefit sharing, is no longer accepted. However, prevailing strategies to safeguard intellectual property and traditional knowledge associated with native plants, for instance, to ensure that benefit is captured for Indigenous hereditary custodians may be lacking or may contravene Indigenous customary law. Where scientific, cultural, ethical, legal and commercial issues interact at the emergence of a new crop industry, stakeholders from various perspectives will bring critical, sometimes conflicting, impediments to resolve. The challenges that arise in the commercial exploitation of the Australian Bush Tomato, Solanum centrale, and its horticultural development, are reviewed and the approaches to their resolution are discussed.

This report is a review of current literature and research on climate change projections, impact, vulnerability, adaptation, energy futures and carbon economies in remote Australia. It is intended to inform research frameworks and directions for the research project Climate Change Adaptation, Energy Futures and Carbon Economies in Remote Australia within the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP). Remote Australia is defined to include both Remote and Very Remote Australia according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (ABS 2012). Remote Australia has notably different characteristics from the rest of Australia. In the 2006 census (ABS 2006), remote Australia was home to 470,000 people – including 2.3% the Australian population overall, but 24% of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. While diverse, remote Australia has shared systemic properties as well as a shared history of persistent disadvantage and poverty, particularly among many of its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander residents. These systemic, remote-region characteristics will interact with climate change and energy futures, resulting in impacts, vulnerabilities and opportunities different from those in coastal regions of Australia.

In this working paper the authors outline 60 existing, new and emerging technologies that are relevant to beef producers in remote Australia as well as to industry researchers and service providers. Not all of the products listed are available or suitable for beef producers, but these products do offer a glimpse into what may be possible for remote Australia’s beef industry.

This report was developed as part of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product Project. The report aims to build knowledge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote tourism by reviewing and drawing insight from comparable tourism initiatives around the world. The report compiles an array of tourism initiatives from remote areas of the world that offer insight into what remote tourism issues Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people may need to consider. This report is based on information from a range of sources that highlight remote tourism issues at many different levels of strategy and development; from the micro level of ensuring engagement with local service providers, to the broad level of collaboration strategies with diverse interest groups. The examples identify a wealth of remote tourism roles available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, demonstrating that remote tourism is complicated and requires determining which roles are appropriate and achievable. The report is divided into four sections covering some of the main remote area landscape settings, including: remote arid and semi-arid areas (deserts); remote rainforests; remote high altitude mountainous areas; and, remote cold and warm water islands. Each section discusses a collection of cases and other tourism initiatives by peoples indigenous to the respective remote landscape settings. Many cases illustrate the desires of people around the world that often includes preserving natural and cultural qualities while sharing remote areas through tourism. Summaries from each case identify issues that progressively build further insight into the challenges and strategies people from around the world have applied to remote tourism. A limitation of the report is that the review only provides a snapshot of remote tourism activity throughout the world. In doing so, however, the report covers diverse remote landscape settings and compiles information about tourism initiatives from a wide range of locations around the globe. Through this approach the report uncovers the gravity of challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples around the world involved in remote tourism. While presenting the strategies used in the various international contexts to contend with the challenges, the report suggests that local knowledge and insight cannot be underestimated as a major factor in developing successful Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander tourism businesses.

This report was developed as part of the CRC for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Tourism Product Project. The report provides an overview of various visitor markets relevant to remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involved in tourism. The report accumulates this information for CRC-REP stakeholders to update existing market knowledge and stimulate remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to consider broad development opportunities based on accessible visitor segments. The report divides the market descriptions into two categories: Aboriginal tourism; and, remote tourism. The third section of the report provides a snapshot of visitor segments in three different destination regions of Remote Australia. The existing information highlights that key Aboriginal tourism market segments include international and domestic visitors. The report outlines that key international visitor markets for Aboriginal tourism experiences include: Germany; Japan; the United Kingdom; the United States; and, South Korea. Visitor numbers from many of these countries have reduced in recent years, while international Aboriginal tourism visitor numbers have also declined. The report also discusses the growth in visitors from China. Domestic markets for Aboriginal Tourism are also discussed, with the available statistics and research suggesting that this segment has also recorded a downward trend for overall and Aboriginal tourism experiences in recent years. Other challenges include matching Aboriginal tourism experiences with domestic visitor expectations. This report also draws attention to a range of remote tourism visitor segments, including: four-wheel drivers; caravan and campers; grey nomads; volunteers; wildlife visitors; fishing enthusiasts; and, eco-tourists. The needs of each segment offer diverse tourism development opportunities and the information in this report may stimulate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people involved in tourism to cater to segments accessible in their regions. The final section of this report discusses visitor segments in three destination regions of Remote Australia. The section highlights that while different regions can share some visitor segments, the diversity of Remote Australia highlights the need for decision making that combines localised insight with an understanding of remote tourism. In presenting a brief outline of many remote visitor segments, this report is limited in specifying visitor segments relevant to every destination region of Remote Australia. The report does not suggest tourism initiatives that may be relevant to each segment because decision makers must determine the unique tourism potential specific to their region.

The growth in qualitative research is a well-noted and welcomed fact within the social sciences; however, there is a regrettable lack of tools available for the analysis of qualitative material. There is a need for greater disclosure in qualitative analysis, and for more sophisticated tools to facilitate such analyses. This article details a technique for conducting thematic analysis of qualitative material, presenting a step-by-step guide of the analytic process, with the aid of an empirical example. The analytic method presented employs established, well-known techniques; the article proposes that thematic analyses can be usefully aided by and presented as thematic networks. Thematic networks are web-like illustrations that summarize the main themes constituting a piece of text. The thematic networks technique is a robust and highly sensitive tool for the systematization and presentation of qualitative analyses.

At every stage, research with and about Indigenous peoples must be founded on a process of meaningful engagement and reciprocity between the researcher and the Indigenous people. AIATSIS Guidelines for Ethical Research in Australian Indigenous Studies (GERAIS) were founded in 2000 with the aim of guaranteeing this process and the respect of Indigenous people’s rights. The guidelines have been revised to reflect developments in critical areas that have emerged since previous editions. These include changes to intellectual property laws, rights in traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, and the establishment of agreements and protocols between Indigenous people and researchers. The latest edition, published in 2012, embodies the best standards of ethical research and human rights. These guidelines also take into account emerging developments in digitisation, data and information management, and the very significant impacts this has on research and other aspects of Indigenous studies. AIATSIS recognises that it has responsibility as a leading institution in Australian Indigenous studies to provide and facilitate ethics guidelines as an essential tool to inform all research in this area.

This thesis investigates and analyses the functions and business practices that underpin the sustainability and performance of Australian remote Aboriginal Art Centre Co-operatives. The primary means for Aboriginal artists to engage with audiences and mainstream markets is through Art Centre Co-operatives. The sustainability of Aboriginal Art Centres is of critical importance to remote communities as they contribute to the economic, social and cultural capital of the communities and provide the artists and their families with benefits through enhanced economic security, access to training and employment. This thesis also explored the additional benefits derived from the Art Centres, which contribute, to individual and community wellness and longterm sustainability. Methodologically this thesis draws extensively on the Mazzarol et al (2011a; 2011b; 2012a; 2012b; 2012c) Framework for Co-operative Enterprise Research but further develops the model to incorporate the unique features of Aboriginal community enterprises. A new culturally appropriate Combined Research Framework is presented for use as a research tool that enables a systematic analysis of the sustainability of remote Aboriginal Art Centre Cooperatives which flourish in two milieu – a domain of industry and commerce and a creative environment of cultural and social expression that has Aboriginal tradition and culture as the nucleus. Most remote Art Centres have experienced a sustained downturn in sales, coinciding with a long-term drop in profitability due to the global financial crisis and Australian Government policy changes. This downturn has negatively impacted the fiscal and social resilience and sustainability of remote communities and individual artists’ livelihoods. This thesis investigates the enabling factors and opportunities for the sustainability of remote Aboriginal Art Centres and has identified critical factors for Art Centres endeavouring to achieve long-term viability.

Objective To evaluate a referral-based, tele-otology service in rural and remote areas of the Northern Territory, Australia. Methods A retrospective observational cohort study was performed of a tele-otology service in 93 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities (2011 to 2019). Assessments included face-to-face examinations performed by Clinical Nurse Consultants and audiologists, and asynchronous reviews performed by otolaryngologists. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to determine the likelihood of ear disease, adjusted for age and gender. Intra- and inter-rater agreement was assessed between otolaryngologists. Results A total of 3,950 patients were reviewed (6,838 encounters, 13,726 ear assessments). The median age of patients was 9.8 years (interquartile range: 7.2 years). Overall, 62.2% of patients were identified with ear disease and 62.5% identified with hearing loss. Substantial intra- and inter-rater agreement in diagnosis was found between otolaryngologists (k = 0.71 and k = 0.78, respectively). The most common ear conditions identified were chronic otitis media (COM, 28.1%) and otitis media with effusion (OME, 16.5%). Topical or oral antibiotics were initiated in 14.1% of all encounters, most often for acute otitis media or COM. Surgery was recommended in 27.7% of all encounters, most often myringoplasty, adenoidectomy, and myringotomy with insertion of tympanostomy tubes. Conclusion Tele-otology is a critical component of an integrated approach to evaluating ear disease in Indigenous people living in rural and remote areas. The high prevalence of OME, COM, and surgical recommendations highlights the need for community engagement, regular follow-up, and early interventions to prevent long-term hearing loss.