The theme of this edition is community development in the North Australian region. The articles included discuss ways of advancing positive community involvement, and report on a range of issues that impact on community development. Social Context theory is presented as a tool of analysis for examining social changes and associated needs among individuals in societies over time. The concept of community development has particular relevance to the fields of psychology, social psychology, and community services, because individuals look to the availability of community involvement options, and the potential they offer, for accessing social activities and social support networks. Social Context theory is therefore central to community development.

This article focuses on Australian men living in the Northern Territory, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous. They are identified as the sector least able to access the indicators of successful ageing, and a sector in urgent need of community inclusive policies, programs, and social support. Four important concepts have been identified in developing this paper; namely the indicators of successful ageing, the use of the term ‘age range’ (as a means of examining needs more specifically), life cycle comparisons (between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians), and the limitations of generic Federal policies. These concepts are linked with Social Context Theory, to identify a major community development challenge.

All residents bar one of an isolated rural Australian town were interviewed to obtain their understandings of psychologists' roles vis a vis other professional workers' roles in rural communities, confidentiality expectations and limits to confidentiality, and overlaps between psychologists' professional and their other non-professional social roles. Data were gathered using a Kellian repertory grid technique and analysed using a multidimensional scaling technique. The results indicated that residents construed the psychologist's role as being different from other health or pastoral-counselling professionals' roles. Residents reported a complex array of opinions regarding the application of confidentiality standards, and limits to confidentiality, although all reported that limits to confidentiality should exist. Although residents reported and accepted that psychologists engage in a variety of non-professional, social roles in small rural communities, they also expected that psychologists would clearly differentiate between their professional role and their non-professional roles. Results overall were consistent with research findings with urban residents and with the professional code and guidelines.

The national Illicit Drug Reporting System acts as an early warning system to detect and track amphetamine, heroin, cannabis, and cocaine use patterns and emerging trends. In the Northern Territory, structured interviews of 28 key informants and analysis of other drug indicator data, demonstrated that there was were diverse groups of amphetamine, opiate, and cannabis users in Darwin. There were reports of increasing use by Aborigines and youth. Amphetamines and morphine were usually injected and there had been a 338% increase in needle and syringe distribution in the 4 years to 1998/99. MS Contin 100mg was the usual opiate used, and the consumption of this Schedule 8 morphine narcotic had increased 1,100% from 1996 to 1998. Opiate overdoses were rare. The purity of amphetamines was low, but cannabis potency was high. All three drugs were considered to be easy to obtain. The policy and research implications of the results are discussed.

Opportunities exist within the current political and economic climate to build on some of the concepts of traditional Aboriginal society, and create a working environment for enterprise development. A model or models are required not just for Aboriginal people to gain support from government or wider institutions, but for governments and other institutions to work to. When referring to voluntary organisation grass roots development in Zimbabwe, Clark argued that “projects will remain irrelevant to the majority of the needy unless used as beacons to light up pathways for others – notably the state – to pursue” (1990, p. 65). Development in Aboriginal towns and communities needs to go beyond the stage of relief and welfare, to an era of sustainable development. However as Korten argued when referring to sustainable systems development and the quest for self-managing networks, changes “in specific policies and institutions” may first need to be sought “at local, national and global levels” (1990, p. 120). Changes are gradually occurring in terms of policies, however institutions active in the field need to become more positively interactive with their clients. A model of enterprise development is being moulded to involve such institutions and their resources.

The aim of this paper is to document community development initiatives undertaken to address substance misuse issues in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory (NT). This paper is describing work in progress that primarily focuses on the early stage of an evolving community development process to provide alcohol and drug services, particularly in the “treatment” domain, in remote NT communities. Treatment in this context refers to counselling and various support and caring activities, which can take place in a variety of settings, such as a residential facility, a health clinic, a women's or community drop-in centre. The context is community development as the paper explores options to address a community defined need to have effective alcohol and other drug programs available to people living in remote communities.

Attribution theory has seldom been applied to assess the impact of community disaster relief work on military personnel, despite a clear prediction from Actor-Observer theory that direct experience of the community's environment will increase helpers' motivation to help in future crises. In the wake of the Northern Territory's Katherine River Flood in January 1998, 31 Royal Australian Army relief workers and 21 army personnel not posted to relief work attributed responsibility for cleaning-up homes, shops and businesses in the recently flood-affected South Pacific communities of Katherine, Townsville, and the Cook Islands. Direct experience of disaster relief work was not associated with any systematic differences in dispositional or situational attributions, although the latter were generally linked to intention to help in future crises. Occasional rumours of negative critical incidents with the local community, although rare considering the magnitude of the relief effort, may have partly coloured the experience of seeing the tragedy first-hand, which would suggest a need to research the Negative Information Bias and the psychology of rumour in future disaster recovery projects.

Aid commercials are increasingly advertising for the sponsorship of children in “Third World” countries through juxtaposing images of them alongside children enjoying wealthier, “First World” lifestyles. Sixty-four Bachelor of Education students from Darwin's Northern Territory University viewed images of the same child surrounded by First World, Third World, or a juxtaposed First/Third World environment; responded to an aid donation scenario; and reported their religiosity. Except for those participants who placed a higher value on religion, and compared to conventional “poor only” imagery, the juxtaposed images de-motivated viewers to help children living in Third World countries. Thus, while appealing to a minority of the donor public, juxta-positioning might be leaving the majority of potential donors untouched and unmotivated to help.

The existence of collective guilt and its influence on pro-social behaviours was investigated in the context of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous reconciliation in Australia. After the presentation of one of three (negative, positive, ambiguous) one-page Australian histories, 80 psychology undergraduates (47 females) from the Northern Territory University, aged from 18-50 years, indicated their level of national identity, perceived in-group variability, feelings of collective guilt, and how participants and the government should compensate Indigenous groups. Participants were also shown an internet petition, a ‘Sorry list’ apologising to Indigenous Australians, to which they could add their name. Perceptions of in-group variability, collective guilt, and out-group compensation were found to be dependent on participants' level of national identity. In order to facilitate reconciliation, the present data indicate psychographic segmentation of the Australian population, in order to tailor specific reconciliation information to these groups.