The town camps of Alice Springs provide a living space for Aboriginal people which is considerably different from general suburban housing. At their least developed, the camps can be a series of officially-unrecognised improvised humpies. Nowadays, however, most- 78 - camps are considerably more developed and recognised than this, with some security of land tenure, some community facilities such as running water, lighting and ablution blocks and some more formally constructed dwellings, be they perhaps only basic tin sheds. At their most developed, the Alice Springs town camps have some of the characteristics of low-cost residential housing estates, with toilets and other facilities in individual houses, a clear block and road layout and house numbers, if not street names.

The town camps in Alice Springs have been assisted in their development over the last 25 years by the Tangentyere Council, an Aboriginal organisation specifically established for this purpose. Tangentyere now services and assists 19 town camps which are spread across Alice Springs, predominantly on its outskirts but also in some instances in small areas nearer the centre of town (see Fig 4.1).

The ABS approached Tangentyere during the first half of 2001 seeking its cooperation and assistance in the conduct of the census in the Alice Springs town camps. The initial reaction from Tangentyere was not very positive. Past censuses had not been particularly useful to Tangentyere. They had not identified the town camps as distinct collection districts (CDs) and so little or no information could be extracted from past censuses relating specifically to the town camps. Tangentyere's reaction became more positive when it was explained to them by the ABS's central Australian census manager that CDs in Alice Springs for the 2001 census had been re-designed so as to separate out the town camps. Eleven identifiable CDs covered the 19 town camps serviced by Tangentyere, some covering only one town camp and some covering two or three town camps close together in a particular area of town (see Fig. 4.1).

Tangentyere agreed to do what it could to assist the ABS with the conduct of the census. It undertook to provide the ABS with the list of dwellings in the town camps for which it attempted to charge rent in order to help with the construction of Dwelling Check Lists for the 19 town camps. It also undertook to provide a training room and to provide ABS with access to a pool of potential local Aboriginal workers through its Job Shop and general networks. It was also agreed that two Tangentyere staff members from the housing section would be dedicated full time for two weeks to the census collection process on a cost recovery basis. All this was arranged while the central Australian census manager, a permanent ABS employee, was still based in Darwin,1600 kilometres to the north, there being no permanent ABS office in central Australia.