Yalata
South Australia
Yalata, looking north-east
Yalata is located in South Australia
Yalata
Yalata
Coordinates31°23′03″S 131°37′14″E / 31.384108°S 131.620547°E / -31.384108; 131.620547[1]
Population248 (2016 census)[2]
 • Density0.05435/km2 (0.14077/sq mi)
Established1954 (mission)); 1994
23 October 2003 (locality)[3]
Postcode(s)5690[4]
Elevation90 m (295 ft)
Area4,563 km2 (1,761.8 sq mi)
Time zoneACST (UTC+9:30)
 • Summer (DST)ACDT (UTC+10:30)
Location
  • 738 km (459 mi) W of Adelaide[4]
  • 193 km (120 mi) W of Ceduna (airport)[4]
  • 292 km (181 mi) from Eucla
  • 281 km (175 mi) from WA-SA border
LGA(s)Aboriginal Council of Yalata
RegionEyre Western[1]
CountyHopetoun (part)[1]
State electorate(s)Flinders[5]
Federal division(s)Grey[6]
Mean max temp[7] Mean min temp[7] Annual rainfall[7]
23.8 °C
75 °F		 10.8 °C
51 °F		 252.6 mm
9.9 in
Localities around Yalata:
Nullarbor Nullarbor
Yellabinna		 Yellabinna
Chundaria
Nullarbor Yalata Yellabinna
Mitchidy Moola
Great Australian Bight Great Australian Bight
Coorabie
Fowlers Bay		 Mitchidy Moola
Fowlers Bay
FootnotesAdjoining localities[1]

Yalata is an Aboriginal community located 200 kilometres (120 mi) west of Ceduna and 140 km (87 mi) south of Ooldea on the edge of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia. It lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people, but the settlement began as Yalata Mission in the early 1950s when Pila Nguru people were moved from Ooldea Mission when that closed, after previously being moved from their land in the Great Victoria Desert owing to nuclear testing by the British Government.

The old Colona sheep station nearby is now part of Yalata Indigenous Protected Area.

At the 2016 census, Yalata and the surrounding area had a population of 248.[2]

History

Yalata lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people.[8] Decades after the European settlement of South Australia began in 1836, a 5,000 ha (12,000-acre) sheep station known as Yalata station was established, with its homestead built in 1880 located on a high hill inland from Fowlers Bay, where there was then a town known as Yalata. Its land stretched from the Nullarbor Plain across to Point Brown near Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula. The huge sheep station ran up to 120,000 sheep at times.[9]

In the 1950s, areas around Maralinga and Emu were used for nuclear testing by the British Government. Around this time the Australian Government resumed much Anangu land to be used for the Woomera Rocket testing Range. Aboriginal people in the area, who were Pila Nguru (Spinifex people, of the Great Victoria Desert) were moved to a United Aborigines Mission (UAM) at Ooldea, before that closed in 1952 due to internal divisions. The people did not want to move from there, as they were used to ranging the desert, and had used the Ooldea Soak as a water source for many generations.[10][11]

In 1951 South Australian Government bought the entire Yalata sheep station, including its 7,000 sheep,[10] "for the benefit and use of aborigines", and in 1954 turned the whole area bar two sections into an Aboriginal reserve under the South Australian Aborigines Protection Board. The "spiritual welfare and education" of the Aboriginal people were handed over to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia, South Australian District, who would also run the property as a sheep station, with the remaining more than 6,000 sheep. The Board would contribute to the cost of caring for the people, and take care of their medical needs, and hoped to establish "a worthy institution".[12]

A group of Ooldea people who were in the process of moving themselves to Ernabella and many others were forcibly removed to Yalata, which was an environment quite alien to them.[10] Missionaries from the Koonibba Mission assisted with the move to the reserve, where the Ooldea people remained for two years before the Yalata Mission was created.[13] Before the mission was set up, the Lutherans were concerned that having a different denomination such as the UAM running a mission so close to Koonibba would confuse the Aboriginal people who would inevitably move between the two, as the teachings were different.[14] The Lutheran missionaries planned to teach the mission residents how to raise sheep, and the mission would be run in conjunction with Koonibba.[15] The government would take about 50% of the gross income of the station.[16]

The mission included administrative buildings, a school and a store. Residents lived in two camps: the "Big Camp" moved around the reserve at different times of the year, while Aboriginal mission workers and their families", and some of the elderly or sick residents lived in the "Little Camp".[13]

By 1969, many of the 300 people living at the mission were working on the nearby Colona Station[17] (which by around 2007 was part of the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area[18]).

In 1974 the Yalata Community Council took over the whole reserve, and the mission ceased operation as a mission.[13]

The Maralinga Tjarutja native title land was handed back to the Anangu under legislation passed by both houses of the South Australian Parliament in December 1984 and proclaimed in January 1985. The Yalata Aboriginal lands cover 4,580 km2 (1,770 sq mi) and span approximately 150 km (93 mi) of the Eyre Highway. Inland Anangu resettled on the land in 1995 and formed a community at Oak Valley. Regular movement of Anangu between Yalata and Oak Valley continued to occur.

Yalata Roadhouse was closed in February 2006.[19]

In August 2007, fire destroyed the shed-structure police station and associated home, with damage estimated at approximately A$500,000.[20]

In July 2018, a unit of the Australian Army were posted in Yalata charged with building a new staff house and a child care centre; roadworks; upgrading the caravan park; and safely demolishing the old asbestos-riddled Yalata roadhouse.[21]

Environment

The Atlas of South Australia describes the Yalata area as:[22]

...sandy plain with deep sand and parabolic dunes. The vegetative cover is open mallee scrub with a mixed understory of chenopod shrubs and grasses and low open woodland with a chenopod shrub understory.

Demography

At the 2016 census, the population was 248,[2] but the number fluctuates (up to around 500), depending on cultural business, seasons and other factors.[23] Pitjantjatja was spoken as the primary language in 50.4% of homes in the Yalata area,[2] specifically a southern dialect.[24][23]

The main religion of residents was as follows, Lutheran: 37.3%, no religion 15.4%, Australian Aboriginal traditional religions: 10.8% and not stated: 33.6%.[2]

Governance

Yalata is governed at the local level by the Yalata Community Council, one of the several local government bodies in South Australia classified as Aboriginal Councils (AC).[25] Yalata Land is held in trust under the Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 and covers an area of 456,300 ha (1,128,000 acres).[23]

At the state and federal levels, Yalata lies in the electoral district of Flinders and at the division of Grey, respectively.[26]

Facilities

There is a caravan park to assist tourists passing through or visiting the Great Australian Bight for fishing or whale watching.[27][21]

Yalata Anangu School provides R-12 education.[28][29]

Yalata Mission Airport is a single-runway airstrip that serves the community and nearby lands.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Search results for 'Yalata, LOCB' with the following datasets selected - 'Suburbs and localities', 'Counties', 'Local Government Areas', 'SA Government Regions' and 'Gazetteer'". Location SA Map Viewer. South Australian Government. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Australian Bureau of Statistics (27 June 2017). "Yalata (state suburb)". 2016 Census QuickStats. Retrieved 22 March 2019.
  3. ↑ Weatherill, Jay (23 October 2003). "GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES ACT 1991 Notice to Assign Names and Boundaries to Places" (PDF). The South Australian Government Gazette. Government of South AustralIA. p. 3859. Retrieved 14 April 2019. Assign the names YUNTA, BLINMAN, BOOKABIE, GLENDAMBO, YALATA, KINGOONYA, OLARY, INNAMINCKA, and MANNA HILL, to those areas Out of Councils and shown numbered 1 to 9 on Rack Plan 857 (Sheet 3)
  4. 1 2 3 "Postcode for Yalata, South Australia". Postcodes Australia. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  5. ↑ "District of Flinders Background Profile". Electoral Commission SA. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  6. ↑ "Profile of the electoral division of Grey (SA)". Australian Electoral Commission. Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 "Monthly climate statistics: Summary statistics Nullarbor (nearest weather station)". Retrieved 13 August 2019.
  8. ↑ Horton, David R. (1996). "Map of Indigenous Australia". AIATSIS. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  9. ↑ "Old Yalata Homestead Ruins – SA". ExplorOz. 24 October 2017. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  10. 1 2 3 Brady, Maggie (1999). "The politics of space and mobility: controlling the Ooldea/Yalata Aborigines, 1952–1982". Aboriginal History. ANU Press. 23: 1–14. ISSN 0314-8769. JSTOR 24046757. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  11. ↑ "Ooldea Mission (1933-1952)". Find & Connect. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  12. ↑ Aborigines Protection Board (South Australia) (1955). Report of the Aborigines Protection Board for the Year ended 30th June, 1954 (PDF) (Report). p. 5. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via AIATSIS.
  13. 1 2 3 "Yalata Mission (1954-1974)". Find & Connect. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  14. ↑ "Hitch in Govt. plans for Ooldea natives". The Mail (Adelaide). Vol. 41, no. 2, 066. South Australia. 5 January 1952. p. 1. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "Natives To Learn Sheep Raising". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 97, no. 29, 864. South Australia. 2 July 1954. p. 4. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "Church To Take Over Yalata As Mission Station". The Advertiser (Adelaide). Vol. 96, no. 29, 760. South Australia. 2 March 1954. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ "'A very advanced experiment'". The Canberra Times. Vol. 44, no. 12, 460. 5 November 1969. p. 2. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ↑ Neagle, N. (2009). "A Biological Survey of the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area, South Australia, 2007 – 2008" (PDF). Department for Environment and Heritage, South Australia. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  19. ↑ "Lease issues close roadhouse". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
  20. ↑ Fire destroys police station, Adelaide Advertiser, 21 August 2007 Retrieved on 21 August 2007
  21. 1 2 "Australian Army in Yalata". ABC Eyre Peninsula. Retrieved 18 October 2021 – via Facebook.
  22. ↑ McCaskill, Murray, 1926-; Griffin, Trevor, 1935-; Wakefield Press; South Australia Jubilee 150 Board (1986), Atlas of South Australia, South Australian Govt. Printing Division in association with Wakefield Press on behalf of the South Australia Jubilee 150 Board, ISBN 978-0-7243-4696-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. 1 2 3 "Alinytljara Wiluṟara: Our communities". Landscape South Australia. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  24. ↑ "Yalata Land Management". Retrieved 18 May 2006.
  25. ↑ "Aboriginal and outback communities". LGA South Australia. 6 July 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  26. ↑ "Yalata, 5690". Location SA. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  27. ↑ "Yalata". Nullarbor Net. Retrieved 21 May 2006.
  28. ↑ "Yalata Anangu School". My School. 30 June 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  29. ↑ "Department for Education". Yalata Anangu School. 8 June 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  30. ↑ "Yalata Mission Airport (KYI)". World Airport Codes. Retrieved 18 October 2021.

Further reading

Media related to Yalata, South Australia at Wikimedia Commons

  • Yalata (Local Government Association of South Australia website)
  • "Yalata". South Australia For Everyone.
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