Abstract: ‘The Great Australian Dream’ is a metaphor which refers to the expectation of home ownership which is general to mainstream Australian society. Indigenous Australians often hold no such expectation and are unfamiliar with the idea that it is every Australian’s ‘right’ to own a home. Indigenous Australians’ long experience of poverty and unemployment has served to prevent such expectations from arising. This paper points out the contrasts between the housing careers of Indigenous versus non-Indigenous Australians. It seeks to explain these contrasts by examining housing ideologies among Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Australians. Indigenous housing ideologies concern rental housing, whereas non-Indigenous housing ideologies concern private home ownership. The housing ideal among Indigenous Australians is a public housing rental home because of the stability it offers through the longevity of the lease. Non-Indigenous housing ideologies devalue renting, regarding rental as appropriate for a particular time of life when people are ‘just starting out’, that is, during young adulthood. In the regard of non-Indigenous Australians the least reputable form of rental housing is public housing. The paper concludes by examining the particular welfare economics practiced among Indigenous household groups, in relation to Indigenous housing careers in the towns and cities of Western Australia.