• Housing assistance, Superseded 30/08/2017

CODE 1     Major cities of Australia

'Major cities of Australia' includes Census Collection Districts (CDs) with an average Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA+) index value of 0 to 0.2.

CODE 2     Inner regional Australia

'Inner regional Australia' includes CDs with an average ARIA+ index value greater than 0.2 and less than or equal to 2.4.

CODE 3     Outer regional Australia

'Outer regional Australia' includes CDs with an average ARIA+ index value greater than 2.4 and less than or equal to 5.92.

CODE 4     Remote Australia

'Remote Australia' includes CDs with an average ARIA+ index value greater than 5.92 and less than or equal to 10.53.

CODE 5     Very remote Australia

'Very remote Australia' includes CDs with an average ARIA+ index value greater than 10.53.

CODE 6     Migratory

'Migratory' is composed of off-shore, shipping and migratory CDs.

In this value domain, physical distance is defined in terms of ARIA+ codes, rather than a simple linear distance between points.

The list of permissible values for this value domain, i.e. codes 1 to 6, is intended to be directly mappable to the values used by the ABS to describe remoteness areas, i.e. codes 0 to 5.

In its initial form, as developed by GISCA and the then Department of Health and Aged Care in 1999, ARIA scores ranged from 0 to 12 and were based on proximity to 4 points of reference.

A new version, ARIA+, was introduced in 2003, with ARIA+ scores now based on proximity to 5 points of reference. Also, changes were made to allow for more accurate estimation of the cost of travelling from Tasmania to the mainland, and to increase accuracy for locations at the urban fringe.

Information relating to remoteness is available from the Geography portal on the ABS website:

Australian Bureau of Statistics 2011. ABS Geography. Viewed 14 November 2011,

http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3310114.nsf/home/Geography

Information relating to the development of the ARIA and ARIA+ scores by the National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems (GISCA) is available from the GISCA website:

National Centre for Social Applications of Geographic Information Systems 2011. ARIA - Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia. Viewed 14 November 2011,
http://gisca.adelaide.edu.au/projects/aria_project.html

The remoteness classification of an entity can be derived using characteristics of its physical location, e.g. its postcode or other address details.