Remote Australia Online

For more than the last two decades, older Australians travelling domestically in self-sufficient accommodation and recreational vehicles for extended periods of time have been referred to as ‘Grey Nomads’. By 2021 more than 750,000 such recreational vehicles were registered in Australia. Tourism data for the year to September 2017 show 11.8 million domestic camping and caravanning trips in Australia, 29% of which were people aged 55 and over. As the ‘baby boomer’ generation increasingly comes to retirement, the size of this travelling population is growing. This term applies to the spike in birth rates after World War II from 1946–1964. This growing group of domestic travellers are potential healthcare consumers in remote areas but relatively little is known about their travel, healthcare needs or care seeking practices. Grey nomads have been described as reflective of the age-comparable sector of the Australian population in that many live with chronic illness. Early concerns were raised that they may “burden” already stretched rural and remote healthcare services but relatively little is known about the impact of these travellers.

This project is comprised of three independent but linked stages of quantitative and qualitative research. Analysis of drink driving convictions (2006-2010) in Queensland identified that drink driving convictions were more predominant in rural and remote areas. Qualitative interviews, conducted with participants in Cairns and Cape York region in Queensland and Northern New South Wales, identified unique risk factors associated with drink driving in the Indigenous context, including kinship pressure and alcohol restrictions. Based on the findings from the two phases, a four session program for regional and remote Indigenous communities was developed. The program was trialled in three communities. Focus groups and interviews were conducted at the completion of the program to determine short-term perceptions of the content and delivery suitability as well as program recommendations. The program has the ability to be an effective treatment option as part of a community-based sentencing option and to assist in reducing drink driving in Indigenous Australian regional and remote communities. Program recommendations and other policy considerations to reduce drink driving in Indigenous communities are discussed.

Indigenous disadvantage in Australia is persistent and includes continued low labour-force participation and employment, especially in remote areas. Government-driven employment programs respond by engaging (predominantly Indigenous) job-seekers in regional and remote Australia to improve outcomes. However, results have been mixed.<br /><br />Much of the extant literature focuses on the Community Development Employment Program (CDEP) Australia’s longest-lasting community-employment program (1977-2015). There are comparatively few studies that focus on programs implemented since 2007, when CDEP began to be phased out, and no studies that trace this recent history in its entirety. This study fills this gap by exploring and comparing the key features of four employment programs from 2007 onwards a period of relatively rapid program change. The paper discusses their key similarities and differences and argues that, despite rapid vicissitudes, the underlying policy settings remain largely stable. This offers some potential lessons for future policy approaches, which are particularly timely in the lead up to yet another new program being scheduled for implementation in early 2019.

Australia’s current labour market programs are focussed on labour supply - ensuring that employers have access to a pool of workers that are willing and able to take on any work offered (Productivity Commission 2002). To the extent that they seek to extend the range of job options available to the unemployed, these efforts are generally limited to wage subsidies and programs to encourage and promote “corporate leaders” who commit to more inclusive recruitment (e.g. Jordan and Mavec 2010). But what if, as is the case across many parts of remote Australia, there are simply not enough jobs available, or not enough jobs within reach of local people? What sort of employment assistance should be provided?

Throughout a seven-year research cycle (2003-2010) the Cooperative Research Centre for Remote Economic Participation (CRC-REP) has focused its programs towards positively impacting in remote Australia in the three domains of Investing in People, Enterprise Development and Regional Economies. A synthesis of the research programmes of the CRC-REP instigated in 2014 investigates themes pertinent to remote residents and settlements, and the stakeholders and partners invested in this national collaborative research endeavour. The most overarching of themes is that of ‘remoteness’ because it informs research and policy, development and innovation and yet there are disjunctions in the ways remote and urban thinkers conceptualise place-based remoteness as functional or dysfunctional. This article sets out to describe functional remoteness as it informs innovations which are ‘creating successful business models for remote locations to ensure long-term growth, employment and improved livelihoods’ (Ninti One Limited, 2014). In each scenario functional innovation relies on local people, whose knowledge and culture are assets, and whose connection to the cultural and natural resources of remote Australia is reliant upon complex property rights and rights of access. In Australia, innovation has not yet been considered through a framework that encompasses geographic remoteness as a relational and spatial driver that empowers community and industry to create and meet market opportunities. This article presents a nascent synthesis of ‘functional remoteness’; remote economic participation achieved through functional place-based and complex local systems, and the dynamics between them and the multi-agent regimes with which they interact, locally and globally.

Objective To analyse Medicare expenditure by State/Territory, remoteness, and Indigenous demography to assess funding equality in meeting the health needs of remote Indigenous populations in the Northern Territory.Methods Analytic descriptions of Medicare online reports on services and benefits by key demographic variables linked with Australian Bureau of Statistics data on remoteness and Indigenous population proportion. The Northern Territory Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations were compared with the Australian average between the 2010/2011 and 2019/2020 fiscal years in terms of standardised rates of Medicare services and benefits. These were further analysed using ordinary least squares, simultaneous equations and multilevel models.Results In per capita terms, the Northern Territory receives around 30% less Medicare funds than the national average, even when additional Commonwealth funding for Aboriginal medical services is included. This funding shortfall amounts to approximately AU$80 million annually across both the Medicare Benefits Schedule and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The multilevel models indicate that providing healthcare for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander person in a remote area involves a Medicare shortfall of AU$531–AU$1041 less Medicare Benefits Schedule benefits per annum compared with a non-Indigenous person in an urban area. Indigenous population proportion, together with remoteness, explained 51% of the funding variation. An age–sex based capitation funding model would correct about 87% of the Northern Territory primary care funding inequality.Conclusions The current Medicare funding scheme systematically disadvantages the Northern Territory. A needs-based funding model is required that does not penalise the Northern Territory population based on the remote primary health care service model.

Accessing preschool in remote Queensland

Summary Indigenous people are the custodians of knowledge systems that hold detailed awareness of the environment, including applications for monitoring and management to improve biodiversity and cultural outcomes. Indigenous communities are increasingly participating in programs to monitor populations of wildlife. There is a need for frameworks to guide how Indigenous priorities, aspirations and culture can be respected within monitoring programs, as well as case studies that demonstrate how Indigenous knowledge and practice can provide opportunities together with Western science practice to improve the rigour and outcomes of wildlife monitoring. Here, we describe the process of developing a monitoring program that was tailored to be carried out by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa Indigenous ranger teams to assess the status, trend and response to the management of a threatened and culturally significant species Mankarr (Greater Bilby; Macrotis lagotis). We applied a collaborative two-way approach, using iterative consultations, elicitations and field trials involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous project partners to define monitoring objectives, record biocultural knowledge and tailor a sampling methodology to fit the requirements of Martu Traditional Owners. Our project focused on creating a method that would be engaging, accessible and useful for rangers who would carry out the program, and prioritized collection of relevant data for community decision-making regarding management. We outline our key learnings for co-design of wildlife monitoring programs on Indigenous lands. Our approach provides insights that will assist in designing other cross-cultural or participatory monitoring programs.

Summary Cross-cultural collaboration between Yawuru Country Managers (Rangers) and WWF-Australia ecologists led to new detections of the Spectacled Hare-wallaby (SHW), (Lagorchestes conspicillatus) in the west Kimberley region of Western Australia where it was presumed to be locally extirpated. This collaboration relied on the expertise of the Yawuru Country Managers to select specific locations for targeted field surveys and resulted in the confirmation of SHW on the Yawuru IPA for the first time in a decade. Subsequent remote camera trap surveys over a larger area included collaboration with two additional neighbouring Indigenous ranger groups, Karrajarri and Nyikina Mangala. These surveys investigated the spatial and temporal relationship between SHW and other mammals which may threaten (e.g., feral Cat [Felis catus], Dingo [Canis familiaris dingo]) or compete (e.g., Agile Wallaby [Macropus agilis]; Cattle [Bos taurus]) with them. We found a negative relationship between SHW and cat activity, suggesting that cats may limit the activity or abundance of SHW. Temporal portioning was evident between SHW and both Cattle and Agile Wallaby suggesting that SHW may avoid times when these species are most active. Further, we found a negative relationship between SHW occurrence and distance to fire scar edge burnt in current or previous fire season. This edge habitat is likely important to SHW because they may require recently burnt areas to forage and dense unburnt areas to shelter. This project highlights the benefits of cross-cultural research and monitoring partnerships with Indigenous rangers as active observers and managers of their traditional lands.

Summary Nature conservation in both theory and practice is increasingly looking to understand different knowledge systems, including Indigenous worldviews, to achieve complementary conservation and socio-cultural goals. Here, we share stories from one of the longest running Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs), Walalkara IPA, by Langaliki Robin, daughter of the founders of the IPA, who reflected on her parents? lessons about how Tjukurpa (Dreaming Law) is essential for conservation. Grounded theory analysis of her interview identified the importance of Tjukurpa and the role of Langaliki?s parents, particularly her father Tjilpi Robin Kankapankatja in the establishment of the IPA. Tjukurpa was asserted as a core cultural knowledge system that provides Indigenous people with motivation, strength and well-being, allowing them to maintain access to Country and work cross-culturally. Tjukurpa influenced the initial declaration, roads and physical layout of the protected area and continues to guide the daily work activities of IPA rangers. According to Langaliki, the key to maintaining strong people and Country is to pass on cultural knowledge and Tjukurpa from generation to generation, especially to younger people. This research suggested that by knowing who the key knowledge holders are, respecting that Tjukurpa exists without being privy to the details, and continuing multi-generational access to Country, conservation programmes that embrace Indigenous ways of knowing and doing can achieve successful outcomes for nature conservation and Indigenous well-being.

Rheumatic heart disease (RHD) significantly impacts the lives of First Nations Australians. Failure to eliminate RHD is in part attributed to healthcare strategies that fail to understand the lived experience of RHD. To rectify this, a PhD study was undertaken in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, combining Aboriginal ways of knowing, being and doing with interviews (24 participants from clinical and community settings) and participant observation to privilege Aboriginal voices, including the interpretations and experiences of Aboriginal co-researchers (described in the adjunct article). During analysis, Aboriginal co-researchers identified three interwoven themes: maintaining good feelings; creating clear understanding (from good information); and choosing a good djalkiri (path). These affirm a worldview that prioritises relationships, positive emotions and the wellbeing of family/community. The findings demonstrate the inter-connectedness of knowledge, choice and behaviour that become increasingly complex in stressful and traumatic health, socioeconomic, political, historical and cultural contexts. Not previously heard in the RHD domain, the findings reveal fundamental differences between Aboriginal and biomedical worldviews contributing to the failure of current approaches to communicating health messages. Mitigating this, Aboriginal co-researchers provided targeted recommendations for culturally responsive health encounters, including: communicating to create positive emotions; building trust; and providing family and community data and health messages (rather than individualistic).

Given proposed expansion of developments in northern Australia and current tensions among stakeholders, there is a need to develop new planning approaches that support multiple uses of land and water, while maintaining environmental and cultural values. This project aimed to demonstrate how to operationalise multi-objective catchment planning supported by scenario thinking, by which stakeholders can collaboratively construct and assess the outcomes of alternative development futures. The project follows a participatory scenario planning approach to guide stakeholders through a systematic and critical examination of possible development trajectories and their associated environmental and socioeconomic outcomes. The process and outcomes of this project will be summarised in a planning toolkit, which can be used by diverse stakeholders to inform future land/water use decisions. The development of the toolkit includes identifying, selecting, parameterising, and integrating spatially explicit tools and models to inform the scenario planning process. In collaboration with stakeholders, we collated and integrated data, parameterise tools and models, and use modelling outputs to guide the development of scenarios, including spatially explicit maps of future land/water uses. The project provide diverse outputs that can support planning in the Fitzroy River catchment, but followed planning methods and tools that can be used elsewhere in Australia.

This is a reply to Memmott et al’s (2022) article on ‘Aboriginal social housing in remote Australia: crowded, unrepaired and raising the risk of infectious diseases’. It is not hard to see that the physical environment of the home is likely to have a significant impact on health. Problems such as leaking toilets, uneven stairs, mouldy walls and crowding clearly create health-and-safety risks. This relationship is recognised in World Health Organization (WHO, 2018) housing and health guidelines, with crowding identified as increasing risks to mental and physical health. These problems disproportionately affect low-income renters, who have limited capacity to remedy such issues (Robinson and Adams, 2008). This relationship between housing and mental and physical well-being significantly contributes to intergenerational poverty (McKnight and Cowell, 2014).

In Maningrida, northern Australia, code-switching is a commonplace phenomenon within a complex of both longstanding and more recent language practices characterised by high levels of linguistic diversity and multilingualism. Code-switching is observable between local Indigenous languages and is now also widespread between local languages and English and/or Kriol. In this paper, I consider whether general predictions about the nature and functioning of code-switching account for practices in the Maningrida context. I consider: (i) what patterns characterise longstanding code-switching practices between different Australian languages in the region, as opposed to code-switching between an Australian language and Kriol or English? (ii) how do the distinctions observable align with general predictions and constraints from dominant theoretical frameworks? Need we look beyond these factors to explain the patterns? Results indicate that general predictions, including the effects of typological congruence, account for many observable tendencies in the data. However, other factors, such as constraints exerted by local ideologies of multilingualism and linguistic purism, as well as shifting socio-interactional goals, may help account for certain distinct patterns in the Maningrida data.

Albuminuria marks renal disease and cardiovascular risk. It was estimated to contribute 75% of the risk of all-cause natural death in one Aboriginal group. The urine albumin/creatinine ratio (ACR) is commonly used as an index of albuminuria. This study aims to examine the associations between demographic factors, anthropometric index, blood pressure, lipid-protein measurements and other biomarkers and albuminuria in a cross-sectional study in a high-risk Australian Aboriginal population. The models will be evaluated for albuminuria at or above the microalbuminuria threshold, and at or above the “overt albuminuria” threshold with the potential to distinguish associations they have in common and those that differ.

Purpose: Yolngu (First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory) and Balanda (non-Indigenous people) often encounter communication challenges at a cultural interface during the provision of health and education services. To address these challenges, our project co-created an educational process and resources to inform and facilitate intercultural communication. During interactive workshops, participants and researchers from different cultural backgrounds reflected on their communication practice together in small groups. Reflection and discussion during the workshops were supported by multi-media resources designed to be accessible and resonant for both Yolngu and Balanda partners. Participants explored and implemented strategies during intercultural engagement within and beyond the workshop. In this article we explain our processes of co-creating intercultural communication education and share features of our educational process and resources that resonated with participants from both cultural groups.Method: Our intercultural team of researchers used a culturally-responsive approach to Participatory Action Research (PAR) to co-create an intercultural communication workshop and multi-media resources collaboratively with 52 Yolngu and Balanda end-users. Result: Collaborating (the power and value of genuine collaboration and engagement throughout the process) and connecting (the meeting and valuing of multiple knowledges, languages and modes of expression) were key elements of both our methods and findings. Our processes co-created accessible, inclusive, collaborative spaces in which researchers and participants were actively supported to implement intercultural communication processes as they learned about them.Conclusion: Our work may have relevance for others who are developing educational processes and resources for facilitating intercultural communication in ways that honour participants' voices, challenge inaccessible systems, resonate with diverse audiences and create opportunities for research translation.Explanation of terms: Yolngu are First Nations Australians from North-East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Balanda is a term used by speakers of Yol?u languages to refer to non-Indigenous people. First Nations Australians is used to include diverse Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia. This term recognises the identities of First Nations peoples who hold unceded sovereignty over their lands and waters. The pronouns we, us and our are used to refer to the intercultural research team who are also authors (i.e. Emily, Gapany, Läwurrpa, Yunggirrnga and supervisors Anne, Lyn and Sarah). When sharing other people's perspectives, or the voices of individual researchers, the text will specify whose voice is being shared.

Seven-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccination commenced in 2001 for Australian indigenous infants. Pneumococcal carriage surveillance detected substantial replacement with nonvaccine serotypes and a cluster of serotype 1 carriage. Our aim was to review Streptococcus pneumoniae serotype 1 carriage and invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) data for this population and to analyze serotype 1 isolates. Carriage data were collected between 1992 and 2004 in the Darwin region, one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. Carriage data were also collected in 2003 and 2005 from four regions in the Northern Territory. Twenty-six cases of serotype 1 IPD were reported from 1994 to 2007 in the Northern Territory. Forty-four isolates were analyzed by BOX typing and 11 by multilocus sequence typing. In the Darwin region, 26 children were reported carrying serotype 1 (ST227) in 2002 but not during later surveillance. Scattered cases of serotype 1 carriage were noted in two other regions. Cocolonization of serotype 1 with other pneumococcal serotypes was common (34% serotype 1-positive swabs). In conclusion, pneumococcal carriage studies detected intermittent serotype 1 carriage and an ST227 cluster in children in indigenous communities in the Northern Territory of Australia. There was no apparent increase in serotype 1 IPD during this time. The rate of serotype 1 cocolonization with other pneumococcal serotypes suggests that carriage of this serotype may be underestimated.

Letter to the Editor: Early in 2016, a 10-year old Indigenous girl committed suicide in a remote desert community of Western Australia1. This tragedy triggered national and international media attention, followed by demands for increased resources to provide effective prevention of suicide in Indigenous Australians. Due to the absence of any reliable reference information regarding suicide trends, we conducted a de-identified retrospective audit of suicide deaths in this region between 2005 and 2014.

This paper examines the creation of social capital between tourists and the residents of a remote outstation in western Arnhem Land and the role of casual leisure in breaking down barriers. The new knowledge generated includes the importance of providing the right environment for the creation of social capital (‘safe ground’), and of having the right people as facilitators, mediators and catalysts – in this case senior, well-travelled visitors of both genders, Kunwinjku elders, and children. Using a narrative approach based on nearly three decades of participant observation as an adopted family member of the Kunwinjku people, and a similar amount of time as a tour guide, I investigate the role that leisure activities played in the creation of social capital between Bininj (a collective term for Kunwinjku and related peoples) and visitors, in particular birdwatching couples. I also examine a modification of the meaning of ‘casual leisure’ given that visitors to Kudjekbinj, even when participating in such activities, could be unaware for example of dangerous dreaming sites or sometimes the presence of crocodiles or large snakes, thus increasing the need for vigilance of accompanying residents. The paper presents a number of lessons for the Post Covid era, including the importance of safe places and people, and of vulnerability and accepting in creating social capital between diverse groups, the use of casual leisure in nature as a vehicle for building trust, and new ways of doing tourism that are not so Western-centric including the role of children as facilitators.

While Australia is one of the world’s richest countries in both absolute and per capita terms, many of its Indigenous peoples live in poverty. This paper seeks to elucidate some avenues for addressing poverty in remote Indigenous Australia via appropriate pro-poor growth strategies. While the Development Bulletin focuses on the Asia Pacific region, the case for including remote Indigenous Australia is twofold. First, there are many similarities in the development problems facing Indigenous poor in Australia living within a rich developed state and those in developing Third World nations. Second, Australia’s development discourse and aid practice offshore generally focuses on failed states, problems of governance and policy failure, while conveniently ignoring economic development problems at home. An attempt is made here to engage robustly with the dominant Indigenous policy approach in Australia that somewhat myopically promulgates a view that Indigenous economic development can only be achieved via mainstreaming, a term that refers to orthodox engagement with the market either through sale of labour or through operation of commercial business. The alternative approach that is championed here is a livelihoods approach. It is argued that such an approach might be more successful than mainstreaming in both economic and cultural terms in addressing Indigenous poverty. This approach, referred to as ‘the hybrid economy model’, emphasises that the customary or non-market sector has a crucially important role to play in addressing Indigenous poverty in Australia. The paper concludes with a note of caution: Australia is keen to export an approach to development that promotes the free market. But this approach has been unsuccessful in remote regions in addressing Australia’s Indigenous development problem, so it is unclear why it should succeed offshore.

This article utilises a model of the economy that includes the non-market, Indigenous customary sector. It seeks to “Indigenise” the economy by using available NATSISS 2002 data on fishing and hunting activities, art and craft production, and Indigenous people’s ability to meet cultural responsibilities while in employment. Other ABS statistics ignore the non-market sector and hence understate the extent of Indigenous economic participation and wellbeing. Whilst it has significant shortcomings, NATSISS 2002 provides statistics which challenge standard measures of economic activity and development and support the view that the real economy in remote Indigenous Australia is made up of three sectors rather than two. The policy ramifications of this are that the customary sector might provide economic opportunity, and that major programs like the Community Development Employment Projects (CDEP) scheme, as well as land rights and native title, might be useful instruments to facilitate enhanced customary participation with positive livelihood outcomes.

To the Editor: We strongly agree with St Clair and colleagues1 that telehealth is a “game changer” for the provision of health services to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia. For more than 15 years, we have been engaging with Indigenous communities throughout Queensland, to plan and establish telehealth services for a range of clinical disciplines, including diabetes, ear, nose and throat, and aged care.

Research within communities that have historically been failed by formalised schooling often describes teachers who have found it difficult to engage with the social and cultural differences of their students. In this article, I present the case of Richard, a teacher whose work entailed a particular set of demands generated by a complex range of intersecting factors - amount and nature of experience in teaching, and the context in which he worked, a school located within a remote Indigenous community in Australia. Richard's descriptions of his experiences reflect a range of conflicting deficit discourses directed variously at his students, their families and community, as well as the school, its teachers, and himself. In this article, I use Bourdieu to explore Richard's case, and suggest that the analysis of deficit discourses in teaching needs to move beyond their identification, and towards unravelling the complex structural and personal inter-relations at play. Understanding how and why such discourses can arise and persist in teaching may afford new directions for research and practice, enabling more productive support of teachers and their work with diverse groups of students.

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission in response to the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) Indigenous Digital Inclusion Plan Discussion Paper (from herein, ‘NIAA Discussion Paper’). We first wish to position ourselves as non-Indigenous scholars; in making this submission, we draw on our respective research areas, including research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (from herein, ‘Indigenous’) partners, but certainly do not seek to speak on behalf of or displace the voices of Indigenous peoples and communities. This submission aims to draw further attention to interlinkages between the NIAA’s policy work around digital inclusion and the rollout of social policies (including by the NIAA and Department of Education, Skills and Employment [DESE]) that affect as well as demand digital inclusion, and which disproportionately impact Indigenous peoples and communities. We also seek to draw greater attention to the importance of Indigenous data sovereignty regarding the NIAA’s call for further data on Indigenous digital inclusion — something that the NIAA Discussion Paper does not address. As the scope of the NIAA’s Digital Inclusion Plan is regional and remote Australia, our predominant focus here is on the impacts of social policies in these areas. However, we also acknowledge that some of the policies we refer to operate Australia wide and thus also affect those living in urban areas. This submission was written by researchers in the School of Social Science and the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland

In 2021, the Australian Senate Community Affairs References Committee launched an inquiry into the provision of general practitioner and related primary health services to Indigenous Australians in outer-metro, rural, and regional communities. This short paper overviews the author’s submission in response to this inquiry. His response focuses on the paramount importance of improving primary health service delivery to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australians, with solutions centred in formal partnership and shared decision-making between different levels of Australian government and Indigenous experts and community representatives.