Local area population counts and estimates are crucial inputs into policy planning and processes. However, population mobility in general, as well as large numbers of visitors to particular areas, place additional demands on resources and those providing essential services. The literature identifies a pressing need for standardised quantitative measures of the volume, frequency and flows of Indigenous temporary mobility and comparable spatial scales.

The delivery of basic government services to remotely living and frequently mobile Indigenous populations is a highly contentious issue; one which has recently received considerable focus at a Federal policy level. Because of distinct motivations, frequencies, and spatialisation, Indigenous mobility practices in many rural and remote areas unsettle conventional Western frameworks of government service delivery, which assume relative sedentarisation.

A range of Indigenous population dynamics play out underneath the demographic picture that can be constructed from official statistics. Primary among these are temporary mobility practices. Although temporary movements are largely 'uncaptured' by conventional statistical measures, they are pervasive in public life and thought. Words like 'walkabout' and 'nomadic' are commonly used in public discourse to characterise Indigenous people as highly mobile over the short-term, and such movement is regularly constructed as problematic for mainstream health, education and housing providers.