In the event, the Aurukun census count took almost a month to complete. This was for a range of reasons which were already apparent early in its conduct, including the difficulties in ensuring that as many Indigenous residents as possible were located and recorded, and problems with the availability and commitment to the project of some interviewers.

Conducting the census over such a long period of course has the potential in mobile populations to lead to significant overcounting. Active steps were taken by the Census CC to minimise this. For example, as discussed above, a number of people had travelled to Pormpuraaw for a football match there, and were away for the first week of the census count. The CC checked with a number of these individuals on their return to Aurukun to ensure that they had not been included as visitors in the Pormpuraaw census. Checks were made of a number of individuals who had travelled to Cairns for medical or other reasons to ensure that they had not been included in the census there.

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Aurukun's population is characterised by a very high internal mobility (Martin 1993; Martin & Taylor 1996). To minimise the possibility of overcounting because of the extended time taken to conduct the census, the CC prepared a computerised list of all persons recorded on the census forms. Some 40 to 50 individuals, mostly younger children and teenaged boys, were found to have been recorded in more than one household, and duplicates were removed.

As had been planned, spot interviews were undertaken at places such as the store, airport and tavern and outside houses, to ensure that as many people as possible had been recorded in the census. The CC also checked each SIHF and SIPF for completeness of data. The one exception was a mixed household of Indigenous and non-Indigenous residents who insisted on the confidentiality of their forms.

As a final comment on the extreme thoroughness with which the Aurukun census was conducted, the CC was concerned about problems in handling bulky parcels through the mail system from Aurukun to Cairns, and the absence of sufficiently robust packaging, and thus personally delivered the forms to the ABS office in Brisbane.