This paper explores some issues for urgent consideration before any new policy for outstations is developed under the new administrative arrangements in Indigenous affairs. The research reported here is animated by a long-standing interest in the livelihoods of Indigenous people who reside at small remote communities, usually termed outstations, or homelands, or emerging communities.

The West Kimberley region of Western Australia is the latest potential focus of the minerals boom currently sweeping many parts of remote Australia. The major impetus is provided by the Browse gas project off the North West Shelf, while other mining initiatives are emergent alongside an expansion of tourism and aquaculture industries. These stirrings in the regional economy are set against a background of new administrative arrangements in Indigenous affairs and sustained projected growth in the Indigenous population.