Remote Community Analysis: Kununurra and Melville Island

This report provides an analysis of two remote communities in Australia: Kununurra and Melville Island. It explores the geographical characteristics, infrastructure, and primary economic activities of each area. Kununurra, located in Western Australia, is characterized by its remote location, low population, and agricultural focus on mangoes, melons, and other crops, with a developing tourism sector. Melville Island, part of the Tiwi Islands, is distinguished by its unique culture, including the tradition of bark basket making, and its scenic beauty, which attracts tourism. The report also discusses the importance of remote classifications for policy and service delivery, particularly in healthcare, highlighting how these classifications influence resource allocation and research outcomes related to health service efficacy in remote regions. The report references key studies that provide insights into the challenges and opportunities of delivering services to remote communities.

Running Head: WORKING IN REGIONAL COMMUNITY 1
Working in Regional Community
Student’s Name
University Affiliation

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Part A
Remote classification is very important when it comes to policy and service delivery in
Australia. Factors like road infrastructure influence the delivery of various government services
such as health amenities to access people living far away from major urban areas. Therefore, the
remoteness structure is key in ensuring that statistics regarding remote areas are released after
being classified so that policy development can be initiated. Additionally, this is done by
classifying various remote areas into large regions that share similar characteristics of
remoteness for policy development.
Kununurra is a town found in Kimberly region of Western Australia. People of
Aboriginal descent reside Kununurra. Hills and ranges surround this town, and hence fresh water
is conserved in dams. The town is a very remote area with a population of only about 4,000
inhabitants. The community in this area experience low access to healthcare. Moreover, the
infrastructure in this area is underdeveloped, and thus transport and electricity are among
demanding issues. However, farming is the main activity carried out and the main crops farmed
are mangoes and melons. Rice, cotton, and safflower are also grown. Besides, the area
experiences a steppe climate in which the annual rainfall of about 800mm. Mining and tourism
are also taking root in the area (McGrail & Humphreys, 2014).
On the other hand, Melville Island is a very remote area found in the Tiwi islands of the
Northern part of Australia at 5,786 square kilometers. The population of this area does not

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exceed 1,200 inhabitants with about 559 people being Milikapiti village, a second village called
Pirlangimpi has a population of 440 people. The predominant tradition in this area has been the
making of bark baskets referred as tunga. Therefore, this tradition together with the great
sceneries in the island are the main sources of the tourist attraction (Thomas et al., 2014).
Part B
From this activity, one can learn about the key characteristics and associated necessary
decisions related to remote classification. In addition, one learns that remoteness classifications
are an important part when it comes to rural health personnel policy. This is because it is possible
to discover how the government tries to align delivery of services in various parts of the country,
especially the remote areas. On the other hand, on top of establishing the foundation for resource
distribution decisions, remoteness classifications are regularly used as geometric tools to help in
rural research. In most cases, the classification of remote areas aids in the presentation of
research outcomes like how health care quality and efficacy are affected by delivery of health
amenities in a remote region.

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References:
McGrail, M. R., & Humphreys, J. S. (2014). Measuring spatial accessibility to primary health
care services: Utilizing dynamic catchment sizes. Applied Geography, 54, 182-188.
Thomas, S. L., Zhao, Y., Guthridge, S. L., & Wakerman, J. (2014). The cost-effectiveness of
primary care for Indigenous Australians with diabetes living in remote Northern Territory
communities. The Medical journal of Australia, 200(11), 658-662.