The actual dollar contribution to regional income from employment and non-employment (welfare) sources in 2001 is shown in Table 4.3. In this instance, the region referred to is the whole of the East Kimberley incorporating the two Shires. This is because comparison is sought with the situation in 1981 and at this time data on the characteristics of usual residents were only available at LGA level.

According to these calculations, the total gross annual personal income accruing to East Kimberley adult residents in 2001 amounted to $153.5 million. However, only one-quarter of this ($39 million) went to Aboriginal residents despite the fact that they accounted for almost half (47%) of the adult population. Of greater interest is the fact that only 8% of the total regional income generated by mainstream employment accrued to Aboriginal people. The implications of this are reflected in relative levels of welfare dependency with 35% of total Aboriginal income attributable to non-employment (welfare) sources compared to only 5% of non-Aboriginal income. If CDEP income is also counted as welfare income owing to its notional link to Newstart Allowance, then the level of Aboriginal welfare dependency rises to 74%.

It is interesting to compare these 2001 levels and ratios with those recorded in 1981 at the commencement of mining at Argyle. These are shown in Table 4.4. Overall, the Aboriginal share of total regional income has risen from 20% to 25%. However, this masks some worrying trends in terms of income sources. Before considering these, it should be noted that due to the absence of CDEP in 1981, employment income recorded for that year is essentially derived from mainstream work. With this in mind, if the ratio of Aboriginal to non-Aboriginal mainstream employment income in 1981 is compared to that for 2001 (0.15 compared to 0.10), then it would appear that an income gap has opened up between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mainstream workers over the past 20 years. Accordingly, the Aboriginal share of total income from mainstream employment has fallen from 13% in 1981 to only 9% in 2001.

At the same time, the level of Aboriginal welfare dependency appears to have dropped, although, as always, there is the vexed question of where to place CDEP income in such a calculation. If CDEP is counted as welfare income in 2001, then Aboriginal dependency for income from welfare sources can be seen to have risen from 42% in 1981 to 74% in 2001. If this finding holds, then it is exactly the opposite trajectory to that observed for non-Aboriginal residents of the region, whose dependency on welfare income is very low anyway. In short, using income as a key indicator of economic status, development of the regional economy over the 20 years since mining commenced at Argyle has raised the relative economic status of non-Aboriginal residents and reduced that of Aboriginal residents. Of the estimated gross Aboriginal income of $39.2 million for the East Kimberley as a whole in 2001, $27 million (69%) of this was due to residents of the study region. However, non-Aboriginal residents of the same region were in receipt of fully $101 million (88%) of the $114 million attributed to the East Kimberley. This means that only 21% of total income in the study region accrued to Aboriginal residents, compared to 35% for the East Kimberley as a whole.

While it is not easy to directly compare estimates made from census data with those made from administrative records, in order to gain a clearer picture of the composition of welfare income, information was obtained from Centrelink regional office in Kununurra on the amounts paid in benefits (excluding CDEP) at each community in the study region for a single fortnight as close to the census date as possible (Table 4.5). It should be noted that these data are for the total population owing to difficulties with Indigenous identification in Centrelink records. It should also be noted that the annualised estimates shown are derived by simply multiplying the fortnightly payments by 26. This assumes, then, that the fortnightly payments indicated are constant throughout the year, which is unlikely to be the case.

From Table 4.3, it can be seen that in the East Kimberley as a whole, census-based estimates of annual welfare income (net of CDEP) accruing to the population amounted to around $21m. The interesting feature of Table 4.5, then, is that the Northern East Kimberley communities alone receive far more than this (an estimated $27m) each year. Of course, both estimates are likely to suffer methodological uncertainty. All that can be confidently stated is that the amount of annual welfare income paid out in the study region is over $20m, and that Aboriginal adults receive approximately 70% of this.