Geospatial analysis of local economic structures in the rangeland areas of the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia

Abstract

We examine the economic structure of Australian local government areas in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia using economic base theory and location quotients. Whereas the economic base approach is long established, in this paper we extend the three-staged geospatial visualisation method of Blackwell et al. (2017) to two additional state jurisdictions. Focusing on the economic structure of rangeland local government areas, we find that these vary significantly, implying that no single generic development policy is likely to be effective, but rather these need to be crafted individually. We demonstrate that geospatial visualisations of employment location quotients can identify local economic vulnerability as well as opportunity.