Titjikala, Northern Territory
Encyclopedia
Titjikala (24.673148°S 134.074574°E) is an Aboriginal
community in the south of the Northern Territory of Australia.
tradition, the traditional owners of the Titjikala area owned an area extending from Horseshoe Bend
through to Chambers Pillar
, the Titjikala community area, and then across to Mt Burrell, Mt Peachy and to Mt Frank.
Titjikala is situated in the Simpson Desert
that occupies much of the southern portion of the Northern Territory
.
Chambers Pillar
is a spectacular landmark, a multi-coloured rock column some 40 kilometres away from Titjikala.
Nowadays, Titjikala is situated within the boundaries of Maryvale Station, a cattle station.
Titjakala is about 100 km by mainly unsealed road south-east from Alice Springs, which is the main access road to the community.
Finke experienced summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.5 degrees celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.9 degrees celsius in July. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees in January to 5.6 degrees in July.
Annual rainfall averages 188.8 millimetres.
recorded a population of 258 people (with 90.3% being of Aboriginal
background) in the 2001 Census. That represented an increase since the 1996 census from 154 people. 35.3% of the residents were below 15 years of age, and just 3.2% aged over 65 years of age. Median weekly income was $245, some $70–80 better than other Aboriginal
communities but still far short of larger white settlements.
Tapatjatjaka Community, on their website, state:
The above demonstrates the natural interconnection between language and cultural identity in Indigenous Australian
culture.
, Arrernte or Pitjantjatjara. Arrernte is said to be the language of the traditional owners of the land. English is spoken in varying degrees of fluency.
Commonwealth Government's "scoping teams" (comprising federal bureaucrats, social / health workers, police and soldiers), sent to enforce a "crackdown" on sexual abuse in Aboriginal
communities. Commonwealth Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mal Brough
said that the Government's "crackdown" on sexual abuse in Aboriginal
communities would begin with 5 communities, comprising Titjikala, Mutitjulu
, Imanpa, Aputula, and Santa Teresa.
"Gunya Titjikala" is a tourist resort operated by Gunya Tourism at Titjikala ("gunya" is another word for "humpie" or shelter). Profits are delivered to the community through a trust account arrangement. Gunya Titjikala is unique in being funded through a no-frills loan by Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss, who provided $400,000 to get the show on the road. The Indigenous Land Council has also weighed in with $250,000 in venture capital. The Australian newspaper reported on 9 October 2007 that Gunya had suspended operations due to the cancellation of the CDEP (Community Development Employment Program) employment scheme as part of the Howard
Government's "Northern Territory National Emergency Response
" interventions in the Northern Territory
.
Titjikala has a general store, school, women’s centre, an indigenous arts centre, childcare creche, aged care program, laundry, mechanical workshop, basketball court, health clinic and Centrelink
agent.
A primary school exists at Titjikala.
Titjikala and its surrounds are governed by the Tapatjatjaka Community Government Council. The Council has a budget of approximately $4m and employs 26 people.
A Lutheran
church is based in Titjikala. The Lutheran Church
has had a long association with the Titjikala community.
There is no continuous Northern Territory police presence or police station in the community. There is no information available on whether Indigenous community constables are appointed within the community.
A permit is not required for a member of the public to visit Titjikala.
Alcohol is banned from Titjikala and severe penalties apply for those taking alcohol into the community.
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
community in the south of the Northern Territory of Australia.
Geography
In AboriginalIndigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
tradition, the traditional owners of the Titjikala area owned an area extending from Horseshoe Bend
Horseshoe Bend
-USA:* Battle of Horseshoe Bend in Alabama, a battle of the Creek War** location of Horseshoe Bend National Military Park* Horseshoe Bend , a meander of the Colorado River in Arizona* Horseshoe Bend, Arkansas* Horseshoe Bend, Idaho...
through to Chambers Pillar
Chambers pillar
Chambers Pillar is a sandstone formation some 160 km south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia...
, the Titjikala community area, and then across to Mt Burrell, Mt Peachy and to Mt Frank.
Titjikala is situated in the Simpson Desert
Simpson Desert
The Simpson Desert is a large area of dry, red sandy plain and dunes in Northern Territory, South Australia and Queensland in central Australia. It is the fourth largest Australian desert, with an area of 176,500 km² ....
that occupies much of the southern portion of the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
.
Chambers Pillar
Chambers pillar
Chambers Pillar is a sandstone formation some 160 km south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia...
is a spectacular landmark, a multi-coloured rock column some 40 kilometres away from Titjikala.
Nowadays, Titjikala is situated within the boundaries of Maryvale Station, a cattle station.
Titjakala is about 100 km by mainly unsealed road south-east from Alice Springs, which is the main access road to the community.
Climate
No specific weather records are kept for Titjikala. The nearest weather station was located to the southeast at Finke from 1932 to 1980, when it was decommissioned.Finke experienced summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.5 degrees celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.9 degrees celsius in July. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 22.8 degrees in January to 5.6 degrees in July.
Annual rainfall averages 188.8 millimetres.
Population
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)Australian Bureau of Statistics
The Australian Bureau of Statistics is Australia's national statistical agency. It was created as the Commonwealth Bureau of Census and Statistics on 8 December 1905, when the Census and Statistics Act 1905 was given Royal assent. It had its beginnings in section 51 of the Constitution of Australia...
recorded a population of 258 people (with 90.3% being of Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
background) in the 2001 Census. That represented an increase since the 1996 census from 154 people. 35.3% of the residents were below 15 years of age, and just 3.2% aged over 65 years of age. Median weekly income was $245, some $70–80 better than other Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
communities but still far short of larger white settlements.
Tapatjatjaka Community, on their website, state:
There are also people who have been living in the Titjikala area for several generations, but whose family members came from other areas. Their children, having been born in this area, are connected to its dreaming. Consequently, Titjikala has become the home to ArrernteArrernte peopleThe Arrernte people , known in English as the Aranda or Arunta, are those Indigenous Australians who are the original custodians of Arrernte lands in the central area of Australia around Mparntwe or Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The Arrernte tribe has lived there for more than 20,000 years...
(traditional owners), LuritjaLuritjaLuritja is a name used to refer to several dialects of the Indigenous Australian Western Desert Language, and thereby also to the people who speak these varieties, and their traditional lands.-Origin and meaning of Luritja:...
and Pitjantjatjara people.
The above demonstrates the natural interconnection between language and cultural identity in Indigenous Australian
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
culture.
Languages
Traditional languages are LuritjaLuritja
Luritja is a name used to refer to several dialects of the Indigenous Australian Western Desert Language, and thereby also to the people who speak these varieties, and their traditional lands.-Origin and meaning of Luritja:...
, Arrernte or Pitjantjatjara. Arrernte is said to be the language of the traditional owners of the land. English is spoken in varying degrees of fluency.
History
Tapatjatjaka Community, on their website, gives the following history:From the 1940s onwards families came to the Maryvale Station to work as stockmen and as domestic helpers. The station owners provided rations to the people who resided and worked on their stations.
AboriginalIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people started settling in the area in the 1950s, when a mission truck visited every six weeks. Families would work at the surrounding stations as stockman, cameleers and domestic staff.
At this time the people still lived in traditional humpies. Water was fetched from a well mainly by donkey wagons, but also by foot or by camelCamelA camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...
. Children and women would travel back and forwards most of the day collecting water from the well and carrying it to the humpyHumpyA humpy is a small, temporary shelter made from bark and tree branches, traditionally used by Australian Aborigines, with a standing tree usually used as the main support...
area. The community obtained its food from rations from the station (flour, salt and meat). People also collected bush tucker including goannaGoannaGoanna is the name used to refer to any number of Australian monitor lizards of the genus Varanus, as well as to certain species from Southeast Asia.There are around 30 species of goanna, 25 of which are found in Australia...
s, kangarooKangarooA kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
s, witchetty grubWitchetty grubThe witchetty grub is a term used in Australia for the large, white, wood-eating larvae of several moths...
s, bush tomatoBush tomatoThe term bush tomato refers to the fruit or entire plants of certain nightshade species native to the more arid parts of Australia. While they are quite closely related to tomatoes , they might be even closer relatives of the eggplant , which they resemble in many details...
es and bush bananas.
Then in the early 1960s the community built their own shedShedA shed is typically a simple, single-storey structure in a back garden or on an allotment that is used for storage, hobbies, or as a workshop....
s, much like garagesGarage (house)A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
, with concrete slabConcrete slabA concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings. Horizontal slabs of steel reinforced concrete, typically between 10 and 50 centimeters thick, are most often used to construct floors and ceilings, while thinner slabs are also used for exterior paving.In many domestic and...
s for flooring. At this time the station laid piping from a good bore with the help of the AboriginalIndigenous AustraliansIndigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
people to provide a tap near the new buildings. As part of the village a church was built in the same garage style.
In the 1970s the first schoolSchoolA school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
was provided to the Titjikala people.
The community was originally a 200-hectare excision from the Francis Well water reserve and the stock routeStock routeIn Australia, the Travelling Stock Route is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another...
. It is within the Maryvale station pastoral leasePastoral leaseA pastoral lease is Crown land that government allows to be leased, generally for the purposes of farming.-Australia:Pastoral leases exist in both Australian commonwealth law and state jurisdictions....
, which was registered in 1978.
Titjikala community obtained freehold titleFee simpleIn English law, a fee simple is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is the most common way that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is ordinarily the most complete ownership interest that can be had in real property short of allodial title, which is often reserved...
to the excision in 1987 and in 1988 the Northern Territory Government gazetted the Titjikala control Plan, which places certain restrictions on land usage and development in the community.
Current events
Titjikala was visited on 28 June 2007 by one of the HowardJohn Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
Commonwealth Government's "scoping teams" (comprising federal bureaucrats, social / health workers, police and soldiers), sent to enforce a "crackdown" on sexual abuse in Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
communities. Commonwealth Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mal Brough
Mal Brough
Malcolm Thomas "Mal" Brough is a former Australian politician and Liberal member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 to November 2007, representing the Division of Longman, Queensland...
said that the Government's "crackdown" on sexual abuse in Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
communities would begin with 5 communities, comprising Titjikala, Mutitjulu
Mutitjulu, Northern Territory
Mutitjulu in Australia's Northern Territory, pop. approx. 150, is an Indigenous Australian community at the eastern end of Uluru . It is named after a knee-shaped water-filled rock hole at the base of Uluru, and is located in the world-famous Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park...
, Imanpa, Aputula, and Santa Teresa.
Facilities
Access to Titjikala is by road or air. The roads (even from the airstrip) can be washed out during heavy rains."Gunya Titjikala" is a tourist resort operated by Gunya Tourism at Titjikala ("gunya" is another word for "humpie" or shelter). Profits are delivered to the community through a trust account arrangement. Gunya Titjikala is unique in being funded through a no-frills loan by Macquarie Bank executive Bill Moss, who provided $400,000 to get the show on the road. The Indigenous Land Council has also weighed in with $250,000 in venture capital. The Australian newspaper reported on 9 October 2007 that Gunya had suspended operations due to the cancellation of the CDEP (Community Development Employment Program) employment scheme as part of the Howard
John Howard
John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....
Government's "Northern Territory National Emergency Response
Northern Territory National Emergency Response
The Northern Territory National Emergency Response was a package of changes to welfare provision, law enforcement, land tenure and other measures, introduced by the Australian federal government under John Howard in 2007 to address claims of rampant child sexual abuse and neglect in Northern...
" interventions in the Northern Territory
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory is a federal territory of Australia, occupying much of the centre of the mainland continent, as well as the central northern regions...
.
Titjikala has a general store, school, women’s centre, an indigenous arts centre, childcare creche, aged care program, laundry, mechanical workshop, basketball court, health clinic and Centrelink
Centrelink
Centrelink is the trading name of the Commonwealth Service Delivery Agency , a statutory authority responsible for delivering human services on behalf of agencies of the Commonwealth Government of Australia. The majority of Centrelink's services are the disbursement of social security payments...
agent.
A primary school exists at Titjikala.
Titjikala and its surrounds are governed by the Tapatjatjaka Community Government Council. The Council has a budget of approximately $4m and employs 26 people.
A Lutheran
Lutheran Church of Australia
The Lutheran Church of Australia is the major Lutheran denomination in Australia, it also has a presence in New Zealand. It has 320 parishes, 540 congregations, 70,000 baptized members in Australia, 1,130 baptized members in New Zealand, 52,463 communicant members and 450 active pastors. Its...
church is based in Titjikala. The Lutheran Church
Lutheran Church of Australia
The Lutheran Church of Australia is the major Lutheran denomination in Australia, it also has a presence in New Zealand. It has 320 parishes, 540 congregations, 70,000 baptized members in Australia, 1,130 baptized members in New Zealand, 52,463 communicant members and 450 active pastors. Its...
has had a long association with the Titjikala community.
There is no continuous Northern Territory police presence or police station in the community. There is no information available on whether Indigenous community constables are appointed within the community.
A permit is not required for a member of the public to visit Titjikala.
Alcohol is banned from Titjikala and severe penalties apply for those taking alcohol into the community.