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Australian Indigenous house crowding authored by Paul Memmott, Christina Birdsall-Jones and Kelly Greenop for the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Queensland Research Centre October 2012 AHURI Final Report No. 194 ISSN: 1834-7223 ISBN: 978-1-922075-12-3 Authors Memmott, Paul University of Queensland Birdsall-Jones, Christina Curtin University Greenop, Kelly University of Queensland Title Australian Indigenous house crowding ISBN 978-1-922075-12-3 Format PDF Key words Indigenous, overcrowding, housing management, Indigenous health Editor Anne Badenhorst AHURI National Office Publisher Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute Melbourne, Australia Series AHURI Final Report; no.194 ISSN 1834-7223 Preferred citation Memmott, P. et al. (2012) Australian Indigenous house crowding, AHURI Final Report No.194. Melbourne: Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This material was produced with funding from the Australian Government and the Australian states and territory governments. AHURI Limited gratefully acknowledges the financial and other support it has received from these governments, without which this work would not have been possible. AHURI comprises a network of universities clustered into Research Centres across Australia. Research Centre contributions, both financial and in-kind, have made the completion of this report possible. The authors express their appreciation to their Aboriginal colleagues and co- researchers, Carroll Go-Sam and Vanessa Corunna who co-authored the Positioning Paper; to Adjunct Associate Professor Joseph Reser for crowding modelling advice; to Vanessa, Keith Marshall and Patricia Conlon for fieldwork liaison with interviewees and to Linda Thomson and Shelley Templeman for document production. We would also like to thank our two anonymous referees who highlighted various blemishes in our report which we have hopefully addressed and resolved. DISCLAIMER AHURI Limited is an independent, non-political body which has supported this project as part of its program of research into housing and urban development, which it hopes will be of value to policy-makers, researchers, industry and communities. The opinions in this publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of AHURI Limited, its Board or its funding organisations. No responsibility is accepted by AHURI Limited or its Board or its funders for the accuracy or omission of any statement, opinion, advice or information in this publication. AHURI FINAL REPORT SERIES AHURI Final Reports is a refereed series presenting the results of original research to a diverse readership of policy-makers, researchers and practitioners. PEER REVIEW STATEMENT An objective assessment of all reports published in the AHURI Final Report Series by carefully selected experts in the field ensures that material of the highest quality is published. The AHURI Final Report Series employs a double-blind peer review of the full Final Report—where anonymity is strictly observed between authors and referees. ii CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................VII LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................... IX ACRONYMS ................................................................................................................ X EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 1 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Debunking density ............................................................................................... 5 1.2 Factors contributing to crowding .......................................................................... 6 1.2.1 Loss of personal control .............................................................................. 6 1.2.2 Variable experiences of stress .................................................................... 7 1.3 Gifford’s integrative theory of crowding and its cultural components .................... 7 1.4 Why do simple density models persist? ............................................................... 9 1.5 Indigenous people’s perceptions of crowding ..................................................... 10 1.5.1 The structure of ‘demand sharing’ ............................................................. 10 1.6 Research aims ................................................................................................... 11 1.7 Research methods ............................................................................................. 13 1.7.1 Stage 1: Literature analysis on Indigenous crowding ................................ 13 1.7.2 Stage 2: Empirical data collection on urban Indigenous crowding ............. 13 1.7.3 Crowding data sample .............................................................................. 15 1.7.4 Trial data collection using projective techniques ....................................... 18 1.7.5 Structure of study site chapters ................................................................. 18 2 THE STUDY SITES ........................................................................................... 20 2.1 Brief overview of Mount Isa ................................................................................ 20 2.1.1 Regional demography of North West Queensland .................................... 21 2.1.2 The Queensland Government housing program in Mount Isa ................... 22 2.1.3 Household size according to ABS Census ................................................ 23 2.1.4 Homelessness in Mount Isa ...................................................................... 23 2.1.5 Tenancy support services in Mount Isa ..................................................... 25 2.2 Brief overview of Inala ........................................................................................ 27 2.2.1 Inala’s Indigenous demography ................................................................ 28 2.2.2 Housing tenure in Inala ............................................................................. 29 2.2.3 Inala’s multi-cultural character................................................................... 30 2.3 Brief overview of Carnarvon ............................................................................... 31 2.3.1 Aboriginal housing history ......................................................................... 32 2.3.2 Demography ............................................................................................. 33 2.3.3 Contemporary Aboriginal housing ............................................................. 33 2.4 Brief overview of Swan ....................................................................................... 34 2.4.1 Demography ............................................................................................. 35 2.4.2 Contemporary housing profile ................................................................... 37 2.4.3 The ‘three strikes’ policy ............................................................................ 39 3 MOUNT ISA LARGE HOUSEHOLD ANALYSIS FINDINGS ............................. 41 iii 3.1 Household profiles in the Mount Isa sample ....................................................... 41 3.1.1 Household expansion—origins of visitors .................................................. 48 3.1.2 Sociospatial principles of sleeping location ............................................... 56 3.1.3 Use of external spaces for sleeping and socialising .................................. 58 3.1.4 Perceived absence of stress by about half of interviewees ....................... 59 3.1.5 Issue of housing staff management of tenancies....................................... 61 3.1.6 Perceptions of stress by other interviewees .............................................. 61 3.1.7 Strategies used to cope when stressed ..................................................... 63 3.2 Neighbourhood stress problems ........................................................................ 66 3.2.1 Case of a high-density Aboriginal suburb .................................................. 66 3.2.2 A reverberating inter-family feud ............................................................... 68 3.3 Requests for physical improvements to cope ..................................................... 68 3.4 Summary of findings in Mount Isa ...................................................................... 69 4 INALA LARGE HOUSEHOLD ANALYSIS FINDINGS ...................................... 72 4.1 Household profiles in Inala sample ..................................................................... 72 4.1.1 Household expansion—origins of visitors .................................................. 76 4.1.2 Sociogeographic exogamy ........................................................................ 78 4.2 Reasons for visiting causing household expansion ............................................ 79 4.2.1 Permeable houses .................................................................................... 80 4.2.2 Funerals and grieving ............................................................................... 81 4.2.3 Additional family obligations ...................................................................... 82 4.2.4 Housing