A key issue for social impact assessment is the question of how to define areas or populations affected by particular past, present, and future development projects. While complete resolution of the issue may not be possible, contemplation of it is more than just academic—it has practical consequences for the construction of spatial boundaries that may either facilitate or impede access to relevant data for impact assessment.

For the present analysis, it just so happens that a geographic area of interest was specified by the KLC. Fortunately, this area (the Northern East Kimberley) corresponds to select statistical boundaries (or at least to a composite thereof) that are contained within the Australian Standard Geographic Classification (ASGC) of the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Accordingly, this provides a basis for compiling population characteristics and constructing social indicators.

As shown in Figure 1.1, the study region incorporates that part of the East Kimberley which commences at Halls Creek and extends northwards through Oombulgurri to Kalumburu, with the Northern Territory border as the eastern boundary. As such, it covers much of the traditional lands of the Gija and Miriuwung-Gajerong peoples. It also effectively encompasses the East Kimberley’s three major towns and centres of economic activity (Kununurra, Wyndham and Halls Creek), and all of its major discrete Aboriginal communities and associated outstations (except for those in the more arid region to the south of Halls Creek). In effect, it comprises that part of the Kimberley for which Kununurra is the primary service centre. Thus, as Figure 1.1 illustrates, the region of interest forms only part of the wider Wunan ATSIC region, and incorporates the whole of the Wyndham-East Kimberley Statistical Local Area (SLA), but only half of the Halls Creek SLA. This incorporates nine Indigenous Areas (IAs)—Kalumburu, Oombulgurri, Wyndham, Wyndham-East Kimberley (S) west, Kununurra, Lake Argyle, Warmun, Halls Creek (S) north, and Halls Creek), and 10 Indigenous Locations (all of the IAs, plus Woolah).

It should be noted that this varies somewhat from the geographic focus of the earlier East Kimberley Impact Assessment Project (EKIAP) which extended further southwards to Malan and excluded areas north of Wyndham (Coombs et al. 1989: xvi). In adopting this geography, this is not to deny that the social reality, especially for Aboriginal people, is one of social, cultural, and economic interconnectedness between this region and adjacent lands. One manifestation of this is the frequent movement of individuals, groups and families into and out of the region, making clear definition of a ‘regional’ population problematic.