The resource boom and socio-economic well-being in Australian resource towns: a temporal and spatial analysis

Abstract

The economy of Western Australia has long been characterized by a heavy dependence on extractive industries. The past decade, however, has seen the mining industry expand very rapidly, with significant implications for the small towns that support the sector. In this article, we consider the socio-economic performance of these towns through an assessment of unemployment, welfare dependence and incomes. In contrast to many other studies of resource boomtowns that typically focus on a single locality or time period, in this study we focus explicitly on spatial and temporal variability. We examine the ways in which place-specific characteristics—the commodity produced, local economic diversity and basic demographic features of a town—interact and have contributed to change in socio-economic well-being of mining communities across Western Australia over a 10-year period.

Keywords:

• mining towns
• resource dependence
• socio-economic well-being
• empirical modelling
• Western Australia

Notes

1. For 2001–2006, there was a 100% correlation between single-company and single-commodity towns. This means only one can be measured, and it is not possible to tell whether company structure or commodity diversity contributed to the change in socio-economic well-being.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Western Australia, the Scholarship for International Research Fees (SIRF), and the Australian Government.