Well-being and Prosperity

Tourism has become a source of income generation for many rural communities seeking ways to improve their livelihoods. This is particularly the case of amenity-rich areas which attract tourists because of their natural endowments. Often tourism-based growth is reflected in economic and infrastructural improvements. Nevertheless, such gr ....

Many rural Australian communities continue to endure a prolonged drought. The mental health effects of short-term natural disaster are well known; those of a long-term and chronic natural disaster such as drought are less well understood. However, in addition to immediate distress there are likely to be feelings of loss, grief and ....

The Queensland Government has set a clear, ambitious target to double Queensland’s agricultural production by 2040. The purpose of this research, development and extension (RD&E) plan is to describe how the Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry’s (DAFF) agricultural RD&E program will contribute to achieving th ....

Aboriginal people across Australia suffer significant health inequalities compared with the non-Indigenous population. Evidence indicates that inroads can be made to reduce these inequalities by better understanding social and cultural determinants of health, applying holistic notions of health and developing less rigid definitions of wellbeing. ....

Background: Type 2 diabetes is one of the fastest growing chronic diseases internationally. The health complications associated with type 2 diabetes can be prevented, delayed, or improved via early diagnosis and effective management. This research aims to examine the impact of a primarily web-based educational intervention on the diabetes care pr ....

This paper discusses the potentially looming 'digital participation gap' in Australia, if concerted efforts are not commenced soon to make certain that poor, remote and vulnerable communities in Australia are not actively included in the fast internet roll-out. The paper: examines the NBN Co roll-out timing and assumptions; asks the question ....

'Economic well-being' is appearing as the high-level goal of regional economic development and other legislation around the world, including the Local Government Act 2002 in New Zealand. This term is, however, rarely if ever defined. The purpose of this paper is to explore the economic literature to explore how the term can be inte ....

This chapter examines the relationship between educational attainment and wellbeing for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. As edducation has been linked with a range of indicators of social wellbeing, improved educational attainment is a major focus of government strategies to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Ind ....

The Healthy for Life program provides funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to address health and wellbeing issues in an interconnected and holistic way, in an integrated primary health care model that uses the best evidence and the ability to adapt initiatives to fit the local context. The aim of the Health ....

Strong and healthy relationships play a vital role in building the ongoing health and wellbeing of individuals, families and the broader community. With increasing pressure on the traditional social support mechanisms of extended family, friends and neighbours, particularly in non-urban regions, there is a growing need for professi ....

This qualitative study explored the experiences of employees exposed to extensive change within a regionally-based, state-owned corporation in relation to the Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work (ERI) model, a major theory for explaining organisational characteristics and employee health and wellbeing. With its focus on status control, ....

The regional catchment area of an Australian regional university city provided the basis for an exploratory research project generating an index of wellbeing of rural towns. The project used the residential locations of first-year sociology students to investigate several dozen rural town communities each year in three successive y ....

The Tangentyere Family WellBeing course was held in Alice Springs between March 1998 and April 1999 in response to increased suicides and attempted suicides among Aboriginal youth in Alice Springs and the surrounding region. A personal empowerment course designed to assist people to take greater control over the conditions affectin ....

In 2008 the Australian Government implemented a trial of two separate measures of income management in Western Australia - the Child Protection Scheme of Income Management (CPSIM) and the Voluntary Income Management (VIM). The trials were conducted in the remote Kimberley region and in metropolitan area of Perth. This report presen ....