In the Bardi and Jawi claim area, in common with many outstations in Western Australia, living areas are not large areas and do not ‘confer much actual land or control on Aboriginal people’ (Sexton 1996: 7). The outstations I was able to measure on the basis of land tenure documents are 5223 m2, 7782 m2, 1.5 ha, and just over 2 ha, and this appears to cover the usual size range.[16] By way of comparison, the communities of One Arm Point and Djarindjin have leases covering areas of 14 339.5 ha and 56 727 ha respectively.[17] Sullivan (1996a: 26) says that, on average, outstations in the Kimberley are of 1 km2 (0.405 ha or 4050 m2) in size.
During the latter half of the 1980s, the first of the outstations in the Dampier Peninsula became incorporated under the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act.
The provisions of the Act relate to a residential group in the area, not the owning group. They confer control over very limited aspects of the life of the group, are subject to very intrusive intervention prior to incorporation by the Registrar of Aboriginal Corporations and encourage non-Aboriginal procedures for representation and decision-making (Sullivan 1997: 18, emphasis added).
Funding grants through various government agencies were available to incorporated groups to assist with the establishment of outstation infrastructure, such as bores or rain tanks, energy panels or generators, basic housing facilities, and outstation vehicles.[18] The absence of recognised land rights in Western Australia meant that outstation groups were dependent on government support of this kind, since mining companies were not obliged to make financial contributions or compensation to indigenous landholders (Sullivan 1996a: 29). Regular outstation income then is derived from specific purpose grants, pensions or CDEP funding.[19] Muir’s description of the economy on which outstations in Western Australia have generally been built accurately portrays the situation I am familiar with in the peninsula:
The people moving to outstations were often registered as participants in CDEP projects of the larger communities. These people then remained on the larger communities’ CDEP programs, with the outstation allocated as a specific CDEP project. The CDEP wage meant that people had an income and were able to purchase essential capital items … As outstations developed, became permanent and incorporated under the Aboriginal Councils and Associations Act 1976 (Cwlth), they were, formally, able to secure separate funding from ATSIC for essential services like water, housing and continued CDEP support (Muir 1999: 11–12).
The outstation economies in this region then are based on a mixture of subsistence through fishing and hunting, with some gathering, social security payments (including pensions) and CDEP monies. Some outstations derive further income from commercial trochus exploitation, aquaculture, and tourism.