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Appendix B: Explanation of subcategory titles (adapted from Brealey and Newton 1978, appendix B)

* Subcategories not used by Brealey and Newton.

1. Built Environment
Minor Categories

1.1 Buildings: the quality and suitability of housing and other buildings including internal services such as air conditioning, furniture and building fixtures. It also includes the state of building maintenance.

1.2 Utilities: where applicable the availability, supply, quality, operation, maintenance (but not costs) of electricity, gas, sewerage, garbage collection, storm water drainage, public telephone, and water supply.

1.3 Streets: the provision, type, width, and condition of streets and footpaths; street lighting, signs, and planting. Does not include access roads to towns (see 3.3).

1.4 Town planning: layout of town, location of facilities, distance to work place, size of dwelling sites, traffic density, and town beautification, but not policy decisions as to what facilities and services should be included in the town (see 4.2).

1.5 Pollution: industrial pollution of all kinds, noise levels, but not natural dust (see 2.5).

1.6 Other: includes planting on home sites and other miscellaneous comments.

2. Natural Environment
Minor Categories

2.1 Climate: includes all general references to climate, humidity, precipitation, winds, and cyclones. It became apparent that temperature is of particular significance, and since its effects are of special interest to building researchers, it was allocated a separate category (2.2).

2.2 Temperature: includes specific mention of temperature; where the need for cooling or air conditioning is mentioned a response by inference is recorded in this subcategory as well as in subcategory 1.1.

23 Topography: includes all topographical comments except those such as an expressed preference for living near the beach, which are recorded in 5.2 (Entertaiment and recreation).

2.4 Flora and fauna: includes references to natural vegetation and difficulties in growing trees. Also included are references to dangerous and unpleasant insects, reptiles, and the like. Specifically excluded are the states of streets and town beautification (1.3 and 1.4).

2.5 Dust: refers only to natural or "country" dust. Comments on industrial dust are recorded in 1.5.

2.6* Water surface: refers to natural or reservoir water for recreation.

3. Isolation and Access
Minor Categories

3.1 Undefined feeling of isolation: includes comments such as "l wish I wasn't so isolated," "I would rather live in Perth," and "I wish it wasn't so far from a capital city."

3.2 Communications: includes telephone, TV, radio, postal services, and press. It covers their adequacy and cost, but not the programme content (see 5.2), and also includes comments indicating that the respondent would rather not have TV.

3.3 Transportation: includes comments on the existence and conditions of access roads, costs of freight and travel, and types of transport available. Transport within the community is excluded (see 5.5 Local transport).

3.4 Holidays: includes comments on the need for holidays, the opportunities to take them, their cost, and travel difficulties involved.

3.5 Relatives: includes references to the disassociation from relatives and former associates not living in the community being surveyed.

3.6 Other: includes an occasional comment associated with isolation and access not classifiable in the preceding subcategories.

4. Commerce-Administrative Policy

This category covers all administrative bodies influencing the community or work situation. It includes comments referring to federal, state and local government policy as well as those referring to employer company policy.

Minor Categories

4.1 Work situation: covers comments on all aspects of organizing and supervising work, including availability of overtime, the reactions to there being virtually only one employer in some communities (but see also 6.2).

4.2 Town and citizen welfare: includes comments on the policy for provision of shops and other service enterprises, i.e., whether or not their establishment should be restricted; the discipline of townsfolk and traffic; policy on conditions of occupancy of houses with respect to alterations, additions, and maintenance procedure; the right of anybody to purchase freehold property in the town. Also includes comments on type of housing allocated by the company

4.3 Other: includes federal, state and some aspects of local government involvement. Such matters as the policy on provision of capital works projects which affect the region, regional planning, taxation relief, educational allowances, and tourism.

5. Community Facilities
Minor Categories

5.1 Education: includes comments on the levels of education available and the quality of the teaching provided.

5.2 Entertainment and recreation: includes comments on all aspects of entertainment and recreation, both active and passive, for adults and children, using natural resources or constructed facilities, cultural pursuits, or light entertainment. Comments regarding the content of TV and radio programmes are included in the subcategory, as are comments such as "I would rather live near the beach."

5.3 Health: covers comments referring to medical, hospital, dental, pre-natal, and child welfare services. Comments referring to such matters as the effect of climate on health or public health concerns such as open drains are classified in the appropriate subcategories 2.1 or 1.2

5.4 Shopping, commercial services: includes comments referring to the choice of alternative shopping venues, the availability of commodities, the need for mail ordering, the quality of goods, and monopolies in service industries.

5.5 Local transport: covers comments regarding the available means of travelling within the community.

5.6 Other: includes comments regarding the need for and size of the local police force, general responses such as "I would rather live in the city as there are more facilities available there," and the occasional other comment referring to community facilities which cannot be classified in other subcategories, e.g., need for veterinary services, legal services, social services in general.

6. Community Dynamics
Minor Categories

6.1 Alcohol and gambling: includes comments on the attitude to consumption of alcohol, the need to consume alcohol, the quantity consumed, time spent in hotels, the resultant behaviour of drinkers, the attention given to gambling facilities.

6.2 Social relationships: covers the importance of religion in the community, comments on the proportion of single men in the community, the opportunity to meet people of different nations, friendly atmosphere in the town, gossip, status, getting to know people better in a small community, loneliness, depression, boredom, loss of friends through population turnover, free and easy ways of life, mean sort of existence, too much emphasis on money, the opportunity to meet only people connected with the same company.

6.3 Civic pride: includes comments referring to pride of the people in their town and the extent of their willingness to improve its image and physical appearance.

6.4 Children's future: includes comments on opportunities for school leavers to find jobs, marriage prospects, and career opportunities in industries other than those on which the community is based.

6.5 Standard of living: includes responses referring to the maintenance of or changes in standard of living generally. Where respondents specifically mention cost of living or wages and savings, these responses are recorded in 7.1 and 7.3.

6.6 Work opportunities and relationships: covers the opportunity to find work or a better job through coming to the community, job opportunities for married women, on-the-job relationships not covered by policy, the difficulty of finding work with an alternative employer in some communities.

6.7 Family cohesiveness: includes comments on how living in that community affects the cohesiveness of the immediate family, e.g., "too much emphasis on work. "

6.8 Other: includes comments relating to the concern for or confidence in the future of the industry, community, and region. Also other community dynamic-related responses not classifiable in other subcategories.

7. Economic Factors
Minor Categories

7.1 Cost of living: includes all comments on shopping prices and costs of various services, but does not include costs of freight where these are specifically mentioned (see 3.3),

7.2 Rent, rates: includes responses relating to rentals, rates relating to properties, and includes comments on house repayments.

7.3 Wages, savings: includes all comments on the level of wages earned and the family's ability to save.

7.4 Land prices: covers references to the cost of land in the communities surveyed as it affects prospective builders of homes or other buildings.

7.5 Other: includes responses relating to the profitability of private enterprises, both from the point of view of the owners and from the point of view of service to or exploitation of the public. Also includes the occasional consideration which is not classifiable under the other subcategories.

8. Miscellaneous

8.1 Challenge: includes all those comments relating to the challenge which respondents feel the situation offers them (including"experience").

8.2 Length of stay: covers responses of the type "I'm glad that I can decide when I leave." Where a respondent has expressed gladness that he is free to choose the length of time he will spend in the community, this has been recorded as a favourable response.

8.3* Aboriginal issues: includes all responses relating to Aboriginal issues.

8.4 Travel: includes all responses of the type in which the respondent states that he came to the community because "he wanted to see the North."

8.5 Local origin: covers the response "I was born here" when respondents are asked the reason for taking up residence in the community. Includes "same with parent" or "Lived here most of my life."

8.6* Tourism: includes all responses relating to tourism industry, tourists.

8.7* Town size: refers to future size of Alice Springs' population.

9. Non-ldentifiable

9.1 Various: covers such comments as "Living here, I find I like it," where it is not possible to assign the comment to any specific content area, but as mentioned previously it is often possible to interpret the response with respect to its favourability regarding the existing environment.


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