Queensland Office of Economic and Statistical Research, National Oceans Office, 2004. ISBN 1 8770 4330 3.

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• Socio-economic overview of the Northern Planning Area (PDF - 1,010 KB)

About the report

Australia’s Oceans Policy was launched in December 1998 to ensure that both current practices and proposed future actions are consistent with ecologically sustainable development.

The policy recognises the need to maintain the health of the oceans’ ecosystems.

It also recognises that strong, diverse and internationally competitive marine industries, which are important to national and regional economies, are based on long-term ecological sustainability.

In December 1999, the National Oceans Office was formed as an executive agency under the Commonwealth Public Service Act 1999.

The National Oceans Office is responsible for the implementation and further development of Australia’s Oceans Policy.

To assist the National Oceans Office in these tasks, the Queensland Office of Economic and Statistical Research (OESR) was contracted to produce a socioeconomic profile of coastal and ocean-dependent communities in the Northern Planning Area, at a finer geographic scale than is currently available.

The Northern Planning Area covers waters from the Arafura Sea, through the Gulf of Carpentaria to the Torres Strait. The Northern Planning Area incorporates twelve Statistical Local Areas (SLAs), some of which are also a Shire.

The SLAs are defined by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This report covers the demographic, social and economic conditions in the SLAs of the Northern Planning Area, including data on age, cultural background, religion, family, dwellings and tenure, income, education and labour force status.

Data and analysis has also been provided for sub-regions in the SLAs of the Northern Planning Area.

Sub-regions were defined, for the purposes of this report, by either an individual Collection District (CD) or by the aggregation of CDs. Each sub-region represents a distinct community.

In addition to a summary, an introduction, and a description of the analytical methods, the report is divided into four sections:

• the demographics of the Northern Planning Area
• the cultural characteristics of the area
• other social characteristics
• economic characteristics.

The detailed method and data tables are contained in appendices. A glossary is included at the end of the report, which includes an explanation of ABS terms.