This research is concerned with the phenomenon of Indigenous homelessness in Australia. A reading of the homelessness literature clearly demonstrates the difficulties of conceptualising both non-Indigenous 'homelessness' and Indigenous 'homelessness' (Memmott et al 2003). The most visible Indigenous ‘homeless’ people are small groups who live in public places, socialising, sheltering, drinking, arguing and fighting in public. This occurs despite the existence a range of Indigenous housing options and the advent of formal Town Camps in many regional centres throughout the late 20th century (especially post 1970). Although these people are often categorised as 'homeless', a number see themselves as being both 'placed' and 'homed', and prefer instead to refer to themselves with such labels as 'parkies', 'goomies', 'long grassers', ‘ditchies’ or 'river campers'. They are public place dwellers who identify with particular public or semi-public places as their ‘home’ environment, usually conforming to a 'beat' of such places where they camp and socialise. In certain contexts the current authors believe 'public place dwelling' should be the nomenclature preferred over such words as 'homeless' or 'itinerant', because the latter terms have specific, and sometimes narrowly construed, meanings that are not always helpful in analysis and strategic thinking. The way Indigenous ‘homelessness’ is defined or categorised influences the types of response strategies that are implemented by Indigenous organisations, and government and non-government agencies to address this phenomenon (Memmott et al 2002). The types of services that ‘parkies’ or ‘Long Grassers’ may want or need are not necessarily concerned with housing or accommodation issues. Most important to an understanding of homelessness in general, is the idea that it may not necessarily be defined as a lack of accommodation. A person may have a sense of 'home,' and a sense of belonging to a place (or set of places), and recognition and acceptance in such a place, but nevertheless may not have any conventional accommodation. Public spaces may come to be equated with 'home'. Homelessness can then be redefined as losing one’s sense of control over, or legitimacy in the public spaces where one lives. (Coleman 2000B:40). This definition of 'home' fits precisely the context of classical or pre-contact Aboriginal Australia where 'home' was country, cultural landscape and the repertoire of places in it. Residency could be at any one of a range of campsites and if shelter was required it could be constructed with minimal effort. Home was a place or set of places, not a building. In terms of contemporary Indigenous public place dwellers, the forging of strong connections to particular locations may be particularly marked and bound up with concepts of 'spiritual homelessness' and dispossession (Memmott et al 2003:18).