Social Work in Rural and Remote Australian Communities Analysis

This assignment explores the definitions of 'rural', 'remote', and 'community' within the Australian context, emphasizing the country's vast landmass and relatively small population. It highlights the classification systems used, such as the Australian Standard Geographical Standard (ASGS) and the Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA), to define these areas based on population density and access to services. The assignment uses Kalgoorlie, a gold mining town in Western Australia, as a case study, providing demographic data and discussing its economic significance and community enrichment. It references studies on health concerns in farming communities, such as obesity, alcohol consumption, and psychological distress, and highlights the importance of the gold industry to the Australian economy. The assignment draws on various sources to provide a comprehensive overview of rural and remote communities in Australia, focusing on their characteristics and complexities.

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Rural Social Work
Student Details:

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In Australia, Remote, Rural and Community is classified based on the access to healthcare,
population size, occupation and other political proclamations, and socioeconomic variables.
Rural area is classified as small population size with big land mass having size of population
below 10,000. The “ASGS (Australian Standard Geographical Standard)” classify rural areas
based on their population density. Remote areas include geographical isolation where the
mainstream Australian society removed and distanced them from other population centres
experiencing difficulty in traveling (Data, 2018). Regional community is referred to social
construct where people are comprised based on sharing same interest altogether along with
maintaining their social relationship. As per the “Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia
(ARIA)”, remoteness is classified as high accessibility, accessibility, moderately
accessibility, remote and very remote where access of services is measured through ARIA+
(ABS, 2018).
In Australia, community named as “SA2 (Statistical Area Level 2)” has a population range of
3000 to 25000 persons interacting economically and socially altogether; also, as per the
ASGS structure, SA2 is at the lowest level. For instance, in Western Australia, Kalgoorlie is
the legendary gold mining town from 1890s with recent population of over 33,000
individuals. (Hatch, 2018). As per the ABS, Kalgoorlie as a mining community with the
population of over 33,000 people has 53.3 per cent male, 46.7 per cent female and 33 of
medium age from which 8.8 per cent of population are Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander
(Kalgoorlie, 2019). However, in farming communities, Australian population in remote and
rural areas of males and females with 20.5 per cent and 16.9 per cent face the health concerns
of obesity, alcohol consumption and psychological distress. This study is based on the
description of collecting cross-sectional data having 1,792 consenting adults within the
population of Australian farming communities in 97 locations across the nation (Brumby, et
al., 2013).
As per enriching mining communities, the community of Kalgoorlie-Boulder community
enriched in terms of exporting jobs in remote areas to involving in best-practice through
innovation for environmental management within the economy. Based on the study, Australia
worth valuing for its gold industry in terms of national asset today and in future as well where
it has reached to 282t of production, $16b for exports, $2.4b for its royalties, over 27k
employment opportunities, and $143k of high wages (Blainey, 2016). Furthermore,
Kalgoorlie-Boulder offered real adventure and fascinating insight in Australia in terms of
colourful gold rush region history (Sengupta, et al., 2019).

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References
ABS, 2018. Remoteness Structure. [Online]
Available at: https://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/remoteness+structure
[Accessed 8 April 2020].
Blainey, G., 2016. Rush: Australia's 21st Century Gold Industry. [Online]
Available at:
https://minerals.org.au/sites/default/files/Rush_Australias_21st_Century_Gold_Industry_FIN
AL.PDF
Brumby, S., Kennedy, A. & Chandrasekara, A., 2013. Alcohol Consumption, Obesity, and
Psychological Distress in Farming Communities—An Australian Study. The Journal of Rural
Health, Volume 29, pp. 311-319.
Data, 2018. Geographic Boundaries in Western Australia. [Online]
Available at: https://data.wa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/18149/Geographical-
Boundaries-Guide-v1.1.pdf
[Accessed 8 April 2020].
Hatch, D., 2018. What's it like living in Kalgoorlie?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.miningpeople.com.au/news/whats-it-like-living-in-kalgoorlie
[Accessed 8 April 2020].
Kalgoorlie, 2019. 2016 Census QuickStats. [Online]
Available at: https://quickstats.censusdata.abs.gov.au/census_services/getproduct/census/
2016/quickstat/SED52903
[Accessed 8 April 2020].
Sengupta, S., Williams, J. & Chandrasekhar, A., 2019. How One Billionaire Could Keep
Three Countries Hooked on Coal for Decades. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/climate/coal-adani-india-australia.html
[Accessed 8 April 2020].