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The Outback Region is one of seven regions used by the Local Government Association of South Australia to describe the territories used by its regional groupings of local government areas. [1]
It is by far the largest region, with very nearly 80 percent of the land area of South Australia, but less than one percent of its population, making it simultaneously by far the least populated and the least densely populated of all seven regions. The region encompasses all areas north and west of the more densely populated southeastern part of the state, all the way to its northern border with the Northern Territory (26th parallel south) and to its western border with Western Australia (129th meridian east). It also borders with Queensland in the northeast, and with New South Wales in the east (141st meridian east).
The Northern Territory is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. It shares borders with Western Australia to the west, South Australia to the south, and Queensland to the east. To the north, the territory looks out to the Timor Sea, the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria, including Western New Guinea and other Indonesian islands. The NT covers 1,349,129 square kilometres (520,902 sq mi), making it the third-largest Australian federal division, and the 11th-largest country subdivision in the world. It is sparsely populated, with a population of only 245,800, fewer than half as many people as Tasmania.
The 26th parallel south latitude is a circle of latitude that is 26 degrees south of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Africa, the Indian Ocean, Australasia, the Pacific Ocean and South America.
Western Australia is a state occupying the entire western third of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, and the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of 2,529,875 square kilometres, and the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. The state has about 2.6 million inhabitants – around 11 percent of the national total – of whom the vast majority live in the south-west corner, 79 per cent of the population living in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated.
The Outback Region has a population of 12,496 (as of census of 2006, on an area of 834,679.8, which makes for a population density of 0.015 per km². The largest town is the mining town Roxby Downs (pop. 4055). In total, there are some 60 settlements and communities, including aboriginal communities.
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses include traditional culture, business, supplies, and traffic censuses. The United Nations defines the essential features of population and housing censuses as "individual enumeration, universality within a defined territory, simultaneity and defined periodicity", and recommends that population censuses be taken at least every 10 years. United Nations recommendations also cover census topics to be collected, official definitions, classifications and other useful information to co-ordinate international practices.
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area, or exceptionally unit volume; it is a quantity of type number density. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and most of the time to humans. It is a key geographical term. In simple terms population density refers to the number of people living in an area per kilometer square.
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposit. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner.
Four of the five aboriginal councils of South Australia fall within the boundaries of the Outback Region. They are listed with the Local Government Areas below. Only Gerard (Aboriginal Council) falls within Murray Mallee region, which is southeast of the Outback Region.
The Murray Mallee is the grain-growing and sheep-farming area of South Australia bounded to the north and west by the Murray River, to the east by the Victorian border, and extending about 50 km south of the Mallee Highway.
The largest towns of the Outback Region, with their 2006 census population figures which account for more than 70 percent of the Outback Region's population:
| Town | Type | Population (Census 2006) | founded | Local Government Area |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roxby Downs | mining town | 4055 | 1988 | Roxby Downs |
| Coober Pedy | opal mining town | 1916 | 1915 | Coober Pedy |
| Leigh Creek | coal mining town | 548 | 1888 | Outback Areas Community Development Trust |
| Andamooka | opal mining town | 528 | 1920s | Outback Areas Community Development Trust |
| Indulkana | aboriginal community | 339 | Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara | |
| Pukatja (Ernabella) | aboriginal community | 332 | 1938 | Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara |
| Amata | aboriginal community | 319 | 1961 | Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara |
| Mimili | aboriginal community | 303 | 1972 | Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara |
| Woomera | military facility | 295 | 1947 | Outback Areas Community Development Trust |
| Oodnadatta | cattle station | 277 | 1890 | Outback Areas Community Development Trust |
On the local government level, the Outback Region is composed of seven units, with a wide range in area from 76 to 624,339 km²:
| Local Government Area | Type | Major Town | Land Area (km²) | Pop. 2006 | Density km−2 | Towns | Est. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roxby Downs | Municipal Council | Roxby Downs | 110 | 4292 | 39,018 | 2 | 1982 | |
| Coober Pedy | District Council | Coober Pedy | 77,8 | 1996 | 25,656 | 1 | 1987 | |
| Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara | Aboriginal Council | Umuwa | 102650 | 2204 | 0,021 | 18 | 1981 | |
| Maralinga Tjarutja 1) | Aboriginal Council | Oak Valley | 102863,6 | 105 | 0,001 | 1 | 1984 | |
| Yalata | Aboriginal Council | Yalata | 4563 | 100 | 0,022 | 1 | 1994 | |
| Nepabunna | Aboriginal Council | Nepabunna, South Australia | 76,4 | 49 | 0,641 | 1 | 1998 | |
| Outback Communities Authority | Unincorporated Area | Leigh Creek | 624339.0 | 3750 | 0,006 | 36 | 1978 | |
| Outback | LGA Region | Roxby Downs | 834679,8 | 12496 | 0,015 | 60 | ||
| 1) including Mamungari Conservation Park and Emu Field, excluding Maralinga | ||||||||
The Outback is the vast, remote interior of Australia. "The Outback" is more remote than those areas named "the bush", which include any location outside the main urban areas.
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