Indigenous Areas

Indigenous Areas (IARE) are medium sized geographic areas built from whole Indigenous Locations (ILOC). They are designed for the publication and analysis of more detailed statistics about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population. Whole Indigenous Areas aggregate to form Indigenous Regions (IREG).

There are 431 Indigenous Areas covering the whole of Australia without gaps or overlaps. This includes 19 non-spatial special purpose codes. More information is available in the IARE coding structure section below.

The Other Territories of Jervis Bay, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and Norfolk Island are each represented by individual Indigenous Areas.

Indigenous Areas (IARE) represent larger populations and areas than Indigenous Locations, allowing the release of more detailed population and economic statistics. 

The criteria for Indigenous Area (IARE) names are that they:

• are meaningful
• have a maximum of 50 characters
• are unique and are not shared with any other Indigenous Area.

Indigenous Areas are named according to the areas they represent.

• Where an Indigenous Area represents a well-known community, it is named after that community. For example, 709012 Urapuntja.
• Where an Indigenous Area represents more than one community it is named with a combination of up to three distinct community names. For example, 709005 Atitjere - Akarnenehe - Engawala.
• Where an Indigenous Area represents a broader region, excluding a specific Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, this is reflected in the name. For example, 708001 Alice exc Town Camps.

Indigenous Areas (IARE) are identified by 6-digit hierarchical codes consisting of a 1-digit State or Territory identifier, followed by a 2-digit Indigenous Region (IREG) identifier and a 3-digit Indigenous Area identifier, as shown below. Within each Indigenous Region, Indigenous Area identifiers are unique. When change occurs, old codes are retired and the next available identifier is assigned.