Remote Australia Online

The underlying aim behind the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme is the reduction of Aboriginal unemployment by replacing the welfare nexus between the Department of Social Security (DSS) and the Indigenous individual recipient, with a welfare nexus between the individual and the Aboriginal community. The mechanism by which this is achieved is simple: ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) provides the local community with a block grant which is notionally or roughly equivalent to the unemployment-related social security entitlements of participating community members. Additional sums are calibrated into the equation to account for administrative and capital costs. within this structure, it is the responsibility of the participating Aboriginal community to both create 'work' programs and monitor the scheme's daily operations.

This multidisciplinary longitudinal case study of Aboriginal housing and settlement in western New South Wales was carried out during 1986-1989. Anthropological and historical research has been used to study the domiciliary experiences and behaviour of the Aboriginal groups of the central Darling River and surrounding plains. Beginning with their traditional use of shelters and camps, the study traces the pattern of cultural change that accompanied a process of forced sedentary living in institutionalized Mission settlements during the period 1920-1950. This history provides the background to a sizeable community of people of mixed tribal origins who were living in self-constructed humpies on the banks of the Darling at Wilcannia in the early 1970s. Their domestic lifestyle is analysed in detail using non-recurring data collected in 1970 by two undergraduate students from the Department of Architecture, University of Sydney. The data are reanalysed by the researcher to generate culturally distinct design criteria for Aboriginal housing at Wilcannia, and then used to evaluate a series of government housing projects that occurred there in the 1970s and 1980s. The case study encompasses the diverse dimensions of Aboriginal housing such as cross-cultural consultation, self-help housing, housing and health, sociospatial settlement planning, behavioural design, post-occupancy problems and housing stock management.

In November 2001 the Western Australian Government announced a special inquiry into the response by Government agencies to complaints of family violence and child abuse in Aboriginal communities. This was prompted by the coronial inquest into the death of a 15 year old Aboriginal girl at the Swan Valley Nyoongar Community (SVNC) in1999. In July 2002, Putting the Picture Together, commonly known as the Gordon Report identified that thirteen agencies had been providing services to the Aboriginal girl and that individual agencies were not aware of all the services being provided by each other and there was a lack of clarity as to who was the “lead coordinating agency” (Government of Western Australia 2002,p.17). The Government’s response Putting People First concluded that: It is important that workers from different agencies come together to address the complex issues evident in the lives of many children and families in need (ibid,p.17) The specific outcome of the StrongFamilies model was to be a unified case plan that identifies each agency’s roles and responsibilities and a lead agency worker to oversee the plan. (ibid,p.17) The Government of Western Australia agreed with the Gordon Inquiry’s recommendation that the StrongFamilies initiative be implemented Statewide.

Objective: To evaluate housing survey data, describe the state of household infrastructure in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory (NT), and to discuss implications for health improvement for people in these communities. Design: Quantitative analysis of survey data and qualitative analysis of the survey process. Setting: All NT houses funded for repairs and maintenance through the Indigenous Housing Authority of the Northern Territory (IHANT). Main outcome measure: Status of infrastructure necessary for four key "healthy living practices" (washing people, washing clothes and bedding, waste removal, and food storage and preparation). Results: 3906 houses (79% of all houses funded by IHANT) were surveyed. Infrastructure components most frequently identified as not functional or not present were those required for the storage and preparation of food (62% not functional). The facilities required for personal hygiene and safe removal of human waste were not functional in 45%-46% of houses. Conclusions: These findings highlight the significance of absent or non-functioning household infrastructure as a potential contributory factor in the poor nutritional status and high rates of respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal infections in Indigenous communities. The environmental health and housing survey in the NT is an important tool for monitoring progress on addressing a key underlying determinant of the health of Indigenous people, and potentially for facilitating research aimed at gaining an improved understanding of the relationship of the household environment to health in Indigenous communities.

“Comparison of place of enumeration at the Census with place of usual residence provides a unique window on the geography and characteristics of temporary population movements. This paper uses microdata from the 2001 Australian Census in a logistic regression framework to examine the characteristics of temporary movers classified according to distance of travel and purpose of move. We show that the age composition of temporary movers varies according to distance of move. For non-local work-related travel, the most significant predictors are being male, maritally unattached and working either in extractive industries or government and defence. Travel for consumption shows more balanced sex ratios but is selective of older age groups, and of those who are unemployed or outside the labour force. Both types of move are strongly associated with income.” (2006: 2).

In contrast with developing countries, the literature on temporary mobility in the developed world is fragmented and unsystematic. This paper endeavours to delineate, for the first time, a battery of measures and techniques that capture the multiple dimensions of temporary movement. Following a review of the problems in measuring population mobility the paper identifies nine dimensions of population movement, each of which describe a particular facet of the phenomenon. These are: (i) movement intensity (ii) duration of stay (iii) frequency of movement (iv) seasonality (v) periodicity (vi) movement distance (vii) spatial connectivity (viii) spatial circuits and (ix) spatial impact. Each dimension is defined and its significance in the study of temporary mobility explored. We then show how the nine dimensions can be used to capture three spatial perspectives on mobility: the national picture; individual destination zones; and movement patterns. Measures and their applications for each perspective are illustrated using data from the Australian Census of Population and Housing and the National Visitor Survey.

Redefining place: Aboriginal women and change

This paper compares population counts and age distributions from the last two Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) enumerations of the Aboriginal population of Aurukun, Cape York Peninsula, with the results of detailed ethnographic surveys of the same population at similar points in time. This reveals substantially lower numbers for the ABS counts, particularly of young adults and children. Reasons for this discrepancy are sought in the ethnographic realities of remote indigenous communities and an alternative methodology for Aboriginal enumeration in remote regions is suggested.

Special enumeration procedures for Indigenous Australians were introduced in the 1971 Census, and have been a feature of the Australian national census ever since. In 2001, as in previous years, the Indigenous Enumeration Strategy (IES) involved the use of locally recruited, mostly Indigenous, interviewers and the administration of modified forms. This monograph presents the results of the first detailed comparative appraisal of the IES. Three CAEPR researchers observed the 2001 Census enumeration, each in a different remote-area context: Martin at Aurukun, a major Aboriginal township on Cape York Peninsula, Morphy at a small outstation community in the Northern Territory, and Sanders in the town camps of Alice Springs. The Australian Bureau of Statistics facilitated the research by granting the researchers status as official observers. The introductory chapter by John Taylor gives a brief history of the IES and sets the context for the research. The three case-studies form the central chapters, and are followed by a concluding chapter that summarises the findings and recommendations. While each locality had its unique characteristics, the authors found some common problems across the board which lead to general recommendations about the future design of the IES. They advocate a simplification of the enumeration procedure, the abandonment of the ‘two-form’ structure, the focusing of the IES more narrowly on people in ‘traditionally-oriented’ discrete Indigenous communities, and substantial changes in the design and content of any new ‘special Indigenous’ census form.

In August 2001 three CAEPR researchers, each based in a different community, observed the conduct of the national Census in the Northern Territory and Cape York Peninsula. The purposes of this research were twofold: to evaluate the ABS’s Indigenous Enumeration Strategy as it was applied in this particular context, and to assess the quality of the data that were collected. This paper, based on research in a remote Northern Territory outstation community, focuses on the questions that were designed to elicit information about household structure. The data collected in the census are a vital tool for the formulation of policy across a very broad range of issues. Pursuing the red herring of forcing Indigenous families and households into mainstream categories is a waste of time and effort, and diverts attention from the significant underlying issues. If the quantifiable population characteristics of Indigenous Australians are to emerge clearly from census data, the questions on the Indigenous form need to be as culturally neutral as possible, in order to minimise misunderstanding on the part of the Indigenous interviewers and respondents. The designers of the census need to step back from the questions on household structure, and decide precisely what information they wish to elicit. Is it information primarily about family structure, or about the size, age distribution, gender composition, and dependency structures of households? If it is decided that the latter data are the most important, one possibility which would sit more comfortably with the Indigenous facts, would be to add a new type of household to the ABS list—the extended family household.

This book traces the history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander housing from the multiplicity of shelters used in pre-invasion times to the extraordinary cottages built by Victorian missionaries, through to the dreaded children's dormitory to the compound and its horrors of disease and overcrowding. Modern themes are also explored - gendered housing, family-friendly prisons, self-built houses, government programs, and advanced designs for health and durability. Contents PART I Settlement: Present and Past 1 Lifescape and Lived Experience / Helen Ross 2 The Way It Was: Customary Camps and Houses in the Southern Gulf of Carpentaria / Paul Memmott PART II Settlements of Enclosure 3 Space and Time at Ramahyuck, Victoria, 1863–85 / Bain Attwood 4 Freedom and Control on the Southern Institutions, New South Wales, 1879–1909 / Peter Read 5 Labour, Control and Protection: The Kahlin Aboriginal Compound, Darwin, 1911–38 / Samantha Wells 6 Aboriginal Shelters and the National Hookworm Campaign, Queensland, 1909–24 / Gordon Briscoe 7 Housing and Colonial Patronage, Alice Springs, 1920–65 / Tim Rowse PART III Settlement and Government 8 The Commonwealth Government and Aboriginal Housing, 1968–81 / Jeremy Long 9 The House and the Yupukarra, Yuendumu, 1946–96 / Cathy Keys 10 Savagery and Urbanity: Struggles over Aboriginal Housing, Redfern, 1970–73 / Kay Anderson 11 Towards Aboriginal Management of Aboriginal Rental Housing, Melbourne, 1960–89 / Penny Tripcony 12 A View of Tasmanian Aboriginal Housing, Launceston and Hobart, 1970–79 / Kaye Price 13 Two Generations of Housing in the South and Mid-west, Western Australia, 1960–95 / Rod Little Part IV Unsettlement 14 The Tin Camps: Self-constructed Housing on the Goodooga Reserve, New South Wales, 1970–96 / Stephanie Smith 15 Housing for Health: Principles and Projects, South Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, 1985–97 / Paul Pholeros, Paul Torzillo and Stephan Rainow 16 Lock Hospitals, Prisons and Indigenous People, Queensland and Western Australia, 1906–98 / Karl Eckermann 17 A Self-help Approach to Remote Area Housing, St Paul’s Village, Moa Island, Torres Strait, 1986–92 / Paul Haar Part V Future Settlement 18 Understanding the Past, Looking to the Future: The Unfinished History of Australian Indigenous Housing / Will Sanders

This paper attempts to participate in the reconciliation between ‘modern’ and cultural studies styles of approaches to kinship, and the more formal and structural analyses of the ‘classical’ type. It is argued that it is the methodological combination of these approaches that produces intelligible descriptions of social structure and process in relation to kinship. The fundamental assumption is that individual strategies play within, and to a certain extent (consciously) exploit, the structural particularities a kinship system provides. A heuristic tool is proposed from which such an analysis can be elaborated. The notion of ‘consubstantiality’ as a reflector of modes of ‘relatedness-conception’ is discussed, because such modes do exhibit interactionist processes while being framed within the structural precepts of the formal kinship system with its terminology and prescriptions.

Creating Anti-colonial Geographies: Embracing Indigenous Peoples’ Knowledges and Rights

This research monograph provides a national overview of local strategies being used to address the needs and problems of homeless and itinerant Indigenous Australians who are living in public places. It has been prepared by personnel from the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (AERC), who have maintained a commitment to understanding this problem over the last 15 years. A preliminary overview of such strategies was prepared during 2000 and 2001 as part of an Indigenous Itinerant Study of the Darwin and Palmerston areas (Memmott & Fantin 2001: Ch4). Material was collected and analysed from Darwin, Katherine, Alice Springs, Cairns, Rockhampton, Townsville, Brisbane, Redfern, Ceduna, Halls Creek (Western Australia), and Port Hedland. A grant was then received from the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS) to expand upon the work of the earlier report using additional materials that have been collected from Perth, Port Hedland and South Hedland, Adelaide, Port Augusta, Whyalla, Coober Pedy, Melbourne, Bairnsdale, Sydney and Mt Isa. Where possible, materials gathered regarding the first locations listed have been updated for this monograph. Stakeholders who might benefit from this study include local authorities, State and Territory Housing Departments, charitable organisations, Indigenous organisations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Councils, and Indigenous homeless people themselves. In fact, all those concerned with the circumstances of Indigenous people living in public places should stand to benefit from the survey compiled herein. (2003: 4).

The purpose of the evaluation was to evaluate the performance of the Fixing Houses for Better Health (FHBH) Projects in achieving their objectives and to make recommendations for future FHBH Project rounds. The scope of the evaluation was to: - understand the social, economic and political context in which the FHBH Projects operate - evaluate the effectiveness of the development and design of the FHBH Projects - understand the interrelationship between FHBH Projects and state and territory housing policy - assess the implementation of the FHBH Projects with an emphasis on community involvement and the development of on-community housing maintenance capacity - assess FHBH Projects against their objectives - assess the cost-effectiveness of FHBH Projects.

The twin forces of rising affluence and population are altering coastal communities around the world. High amenity, environmentally sensitive areas—particularly attractive, non-metropolitan coastal environments—are witnessing a tidal wave of in migration from former urbanites. As a result, these communities are struggling to accommodate growing numbers of people with urban tastes and rural dreams in areas with governance structures and physical infrastructure designed for occasional tourists. This article looks at how governance frameworks in coastal Australia respond to the profound environmental, social, and cultural implications of this process. We offer a typology of non-metropolitan coastal growth settings—from exurban contexts to isolated coastal hamlets—and identify the main environmental, social, economic, and governance issues they face. We then outline the policy and legislative framework governing coastal areas in Australia and show how this framework is interpreted at the local level through an analysis of five local plans covering different coastal settings.

Towards a national policy framework that integrates the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of the Australian coastline and its communities with the timely funding and delivery of hard and soft infrastructure. The Taskforce promotes the adoption of a national Policy Framework for Coastal Australia that integrates the environmental, social and economic wellbeing of the Australian coastline and its communities with the timely funding and delivery of hard and soft infrastructure. The proposed framework is aimed at achieving a coordinated national approach to managing coastal issues through the commitment of all three levels of government to work collaboratively to achieve the sustainability of coastal communities and the coastal environment.

Sustainable Service Responses to Family Violence in Remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities in North Queensland was a 12 month action research project funded by the Australian Government under the National Homelessness Strategy. The project aimed to: - document the unique models of service delivery operating in remote communities; - explore the strengths and weaknesses of the existing service responses; and - make recommendations around developing sustainable service responses for the future. The project involved twelve Supported Accommodation Assistance Program (SAAP) funded services across North Queensland. The services are located at Aurukun, Mornington Island, Kowanyama, Doomadgee, Pormpuraaw, Bamaga, Thursday Island, Lockhart River, Hopevale, Yarrabah and Palm Island. The project also aimed to deliver some tangible benefits to communities throughout its implementation. This included training, assistance with local issues and development of some resources.

The human right to adequate housing has legal foundations throughout the body of international human rights law. It has been codified in many diverse instruments ...

The survey examines key changes in the operating environment of Housing Services, major issues of concern to these organisations, and how they are responding. Indirectly, the survey also provide a sense of how Australian families are faring when accessing or attempting to access Housing Services. ACOSS Info paper 357. Includes: Community Services sector. Housing services. The pressures upon delivery of service. Agency income, costs and insurance. Centrelink. Federal government policy changes effect upon housing service agencies. “This survey is based on an analysis of the sixth Australians Living on the Edge survey of the community services sector conducted by ACOSS and the state and territory Councils of Social Service in late 2003. The survey examines key changes in the operating environment of Housing Services, major issues of concern to these organisations, and how they are responding. Indirectly, the survey also provide a sense of how Australian families are faring when accessing or attempting to access Housing Services. This report is based on survey responses from 99 Housing Services nationally. In total these responding services delivered Housing Services to over 85,645 families in the 12 months to June 2003.” Page 2.

This monograph presents a rigorous quantitative assessment, against normative criteria, of the housing requirements of Indigenous people, and in doing so makes an important contribution to knowledge about the interrelationship between environmental health and economic status. This work provides, for the first time, national estimates of the housing need of Indigenous Australians, the regional variations between States and Territories and the 36 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission regional councils. It also provides a measure of their relative need compared to the non-Indigenous population, as well as the change over time between 1986 and 1991 with intercensal analysis. It will thus be an essential document for all policy makers and program managers in the housing arena at Commonwealth, State and Territory, regional and local levels, providing a baseline from which to assess Indigenous housing need and a guide to resource allocation.

Data from the 2002-03 Survey of Income and Housing show that, of the 7.6 million households in Australia, 1.2 million or 15.8 per cent of all households in Australia paid 30 per cent or more of gross household income in meeting their housing costs.

Report of the East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project conducted between 1985 and 1988 in response to requests from local Aboriginal communities for assistance in dealing with economic and social change arising from resource development. Presents a strong case for questioning the beliefs that pastoral settlement, 1880's gold rush' the Ord River Irrigation Scheme, the Argyle diamond mine and tourism, promised riches to East Kimberley. Concludes that development should be based on Aboriginal people and the land of promises is really a land of broken and forgotten promises.

Since the early 1990s major changes have occurred in the legal, policy and institutional context within which mineral development occurs on Aboriginal land in Australia. This article assesses whether these changes have substantially enhanced the capacity of Aboriginal people to control mining and share in its benefits. It examines, in turn, the major actors involved in mineral development in Australia, the policy positions they are adopting and the way in which they are behaving in relation to mining on Aboriginal land. It concludes that while some Aboriginal groups are gaining greater control over resource development, many have failed to do so, reflecting the fact that the legal, policy and institutional environment remains largely hostile to Aboriginal interests. Only adoption by Aboriginal people of effective political strategies operating on a number of scales can change this situation.

“Housing for Aboriginal families became a controversial issue in Western Australia during the 1990s as a result of an increasing number of evictions of those living in state housing properties. This article examines the social, legal and political circumstances surrounding these evictions. It looks at a range of issues about the nature of institutional discrimination and the ambiguity between direct and indirect discrimination. It also examines the capacity of the legalistic processes of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to deal with these issues.”