Helicopters, charter planes, boats and four-wheel drives play a key part in ensuring thousands of Australians get their right to vote this federal election.
The Australian Electoral Commission has started rolling out dozens of mobile polling teams to almost 500 remote communities nationwide as early voting gets underway ahead of the May 3 poll.
In the tiny Northern Territory town of Pirlangimpi in the Tiwi Islands, about 200 voters patiently queued in the humidity to cast their ballots.
Local resident Dennis Tipakauppa, 54, was tight-lipped about who would get his vote, but he said the islands were in desperate need of housing, roads and community services.
"The government didn't do nothing over the past five, 10 years," he said on Tuesday.
"Bring some money to the Tiwi Islands ... we live in overcrowded houses."
The Tiwi Islands, located about 80km north of Darwin, are in the seat of Lingiari, which is held by Labor's Marion Scrymgour with a slim margin of 1.7 per cent.
John McLennan Jnr, 24, said he would like to see more jobs for the island's 2500 inhabitants and infrastructure improvements.
He said the island's public buses had stopped running and the roads were in a bad state, with many families waiting years for new homes.
"The same thing is going on and on, and not much has changed, (but) I keep voting for the same mob," he said, laughing.
Pauline Jedda Puruntatameri said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton should visit the Tiwi Islands and discuss the issues facing residents.
"They need to come to community and see how it is," she said.
"We need more jobs for young people. We need more social services ... we have a lot of suicides that happen on Tiwis ... and we don't have a safe house for women and we need that as a priority."
The islands' roads were in such bad condition it was often difficult to travel to other communities for important events, such as sorry business, Ms Puruntatameri said.
Bernard Puruntatameri, 36, said there had been strong voter turnout and the community was hopeful it would lead to improvements in services.
"We need some changes like the stores ... cheaper prices ... and a new laundromat," he said.
"We (also) need more houses because a lot of people live with family."
Australian Electoral Commissioner Jeff Pope said he was buoyed by the voter turnout in Pirlangimpi.
"Indigenous enrolment rates are the highest they've ever been in terms of the number of people on the electoral roll," he said.
He said geography and weather were the biggest challenges facing the electoral commission's remote polling teams as they attempted to reach communities with 10 registered voters or more.
"We've got hundreds of people ... we've got four-wheel drives, we've got light aircraft, boats, possibly even having to use helicopters," he said.
"Unbelievable challenges, the logistics are incredible."
13YARN 13 92 76
Lifeline 13 11 14
beyondblue 1300 22 4636
