ABSTRACT
The more than two and a-half m illion square kilom etres which make up the state o f Western Australia are populated by only 1,586,825 people; a land mass which is some 500 times the size o f Trinidad and Tobago with a population which is only some 1.25 tim es as large (Australian Bureau o f Statistics (ABS), 1993a; 1993b). Aboriginal people comprised only 2.5% o f the total population o f Western Australia (39,080) and hence constituted a minority population o f only slightly larger proportions than the white population o f Trinidad (1%).
