The Shire of Roebourne is located 1,500 km North of Perth and 15 km East of the Burrup Peninsula. The shire lies on the central Pilbara coast and occupies an area of 15,197 sq km, and its major towns are Karratha, Dampier, Roebourne and Wickham/Point Samson.

As the main town, Karratha provides a service, housing and governance centre for the rapidly expanding resource sector. The main industries in the shire are iron ore mining, salt production, petroleum and gas, pastoralism, fishing, tourism and service industries.

The population of Roebourne(S) is growing steadily due to increasing employment opportunities, primarily because of resource and construction projects. As a result, there is a wide range of education, social, shopping and recreation services available.

The famous Dampier Archipelago lies directly off the coast of Roebourne(S). The archipelago consists of 42 islands and islets lying within a 45km radius from the towns of Dampier and Point Samson.  The rugged Burrup Peninsula is home to an estimated one million petroglyphs, (Aboriginal rock carvings) some of which are over 30,000 years old. It is regarded by some commentators as the world’s largest outdoor art gallery.

The high proportion of males to females has been fairly consistent between 1996 and 2006. This is indicative of the predominantly male workforce of the mining and construction industries, which are the major economic activities in the region. Interestingly, Roebourne(S) and Ashburton(S) have the highest proportion of families with dependent children in Western Australia.

The industries of employment for Roebourne(S) clearly show the predominance of the mining sector followed by the construction industry, with the education and training sector ranking third. Since 1996 there has been a marked decrease in the number of workers employed in the agricultural and fishing industries, possibly due to the decline in these sectors and the higher wages typically available in the resources sector.

                               Source: Census of Population and Housing, ABS 

The number of residential building approvals indicates the cyclical nature of the building sector in the region. The trend has improved between 2000-01 and 2003-04 before decreasing in 2004-05 and 2005-06. In 2006-07 and the following year, approvals jumped significantly with land releases facilitated by LandCorp in the Baton, Tambrey and Nickol West subdivisions.