Indigenous people in the West Kimberley labour market

Abstract

The West Kimberley region of Western Australia is the latest potential focus of the minerals boom currently sweeping many parts of remote Australia. The major impetus is provided by the Browse gas project off the North West Shelf, while other mining initiatives are emergent alongside an expansion of tourism and aquaculture industries. These stirrings in the regional economy are set against a background of new administrative arrangements in Indigenous affairs and sustained projected growth in the Indigenous population. Not surprisingly, there have been growing demands for a detailed profile of socioeconomic conditions in the region set within a framework of understanding the dynamics of Indigenous labour demand and supply. In responding to this need, this study injects statistical information and analysis into deliberations regarding development futures and their possible impacts in the region. As such, it also provides a baseline against which any subsequent monitoring of impacts can take place.