Aboriginal access to housing in alice springs

Abstract

Summary This paper is about the housing supply system in Alice Springs and the access that Aborigines have to the various sections of that system. At present large numbers of Aborigines still live in self‐built dwellings in camps scattered in and around the town, although an increasing proportion is being housed in conventional units. The major factor in denying Aboriginal families access to better housing is their limited incorporation into regular wage employment. Not only does this deprive them of essential income, it also denies Aborigines the status which the present supply system deems necessary before an attempt at incorporation is considered worthwhile: other factors, such as racial prejudice, are also important. The extent to which small white pressure groups can manipulate the access of Aboriginal families to housing, even when it is designed and built especially for them, is illustrated in a brief case study.