{{Short description|Indigenous Protected Area and township in western South Australia}} {{other uses|Yalata (disambiguation){{!}}Yalata}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2011}} {{Infobox Australian place | type = town | name = Yalata | state = sa | image = Yalata, South Australia -- aerial looking north-east.jpg | caption = Yalata township looking north-east | coordinates={{coord|31.384108|S|131.620547|E|format=dms|region:AU-SA_type:city(100)|display=inline,title}} | coord_ref = <ref name="LMV">{{cite web|title=Search results for 'Yalata, LOCB' with the following datasets selected – 'Suburbs and localities', 'Counties', 'Local Government Areas', 'SA Government Regions' and 'Gazetteer'|url=http://location.sa.gov.au/viewer/?map=topographic&x=131.69594&y=-31.58745&z=10&uids=19,2,11,20,105&pinx=131.621930&piny=-31.382710&pinTitle=Location&pinText=Yalata,+Locb|website=Location SA Map Viewer|publisher=South Australian Government|access-date=13 August 2019}}</ref>
| pushpin_label_position = top | map_alt = | map_type =
| pop = <!--leave blank to draw the latest automatically from Wikidata--><!-- In 2024, the automated population total was 11 less than the figure shown on the ABS website. --> | pop_year = {{CensusAU|2021}} | pop_footnotes = <ref name=census>{{Census 2021 AUS|id=SAL41669|name=Yalata (suburbs and localities)|access-date=15 October 2024|quick=on}}</ref> | poprank = | density = | density_footnotes =
| established = Mission: 1954, 1994.{{citation needed|date=August 2019}} <br/>Locality: 23 October 2003 | established_footnotes = <ref name="SAGG-2003">{{cite web|title=Geographical Names Act 1991 Notice to assign names and boundaries to places|url=http://governmentgazette.sa.gov.au/sites/default/files/public/documents/gazette/2003/October/2003_101.pdf|website=The South Australian Government Gazette|publisher=Government of South AustralIA|access-date=14 April 2019|pages=3859|date=23 October 2003|quote="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)"}}</ref>
| abolished = | gazetted = | postcode = 5690 | elevation = 90 | elevation_footnotes = | area = 4563 | area_footnotes = | timezone = ACST | utc = +9:30 | timezone-dst = ACDT | utc-dst = +10:30
| dist1 = 982 | dir1 = by road and {{convert|738|km|mi|abbr=on}} direct, north-west | location1= Adelaide<ref name=map>{{Google maps |url=https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Ceduna+SA/Yalata+SA+5690/@-31.8766175,132.6109797,177653m/ |title=Yalata|access-date=15 October 2024}}</ref> | dist2 = 206 | dir2 = by road and {{convert|189|km|mi|abbr=on}} direct, west-north-west | location2= Ceduna<ref name=map/> | dist3 = 95 | dir3 = by road and {{convert|88|km|mi|abbr=on}} direct, east | location3= the WA-SA border<ref name=map/> | lga = Aboriginal Council of Yalata | region = Eyre Western<ref name="LMV"/> | county = Hopetoun (part)<ref name="LMV"/> | stategov = Flinders<ref name=Flinders>{{cite web|title=District of Flinders Background Profile|url=https://www.ecsa.sa.gov.au/electoral-districts/electoral-district-profiles?view=article&id=827:flinders|publisher=Electoral Commission SA|access-date=13 August 2019}}</ref> | fedgov = Grey<ref name=AEC>{{cite web|title=Profile of the electoral division of Grey (SA)|url=https://www.aec.gov.au/profiles/sa/grey.htm|publisher=Australian Electoral Commission|access-date=13 August 2019}}</ref>
| maxtemp = 23.8 | maxtemp_footnotes = <ref name=climate>{{cite web|title=Monthly climate statistics: Summary statistics Nullarbor (nearest weather station)|url=http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_018106.shtml|access-date=13 August 2019}}</ref> | mintemp = 10.8 | mintemp_footnotes = <ref name=climate/> | rainfall = 252.6 | rainfall_footnotes = <ref name=climate/>
| near-n = Nullarbor<br/>Yellabinna | near-ne = Yellabinna<br/>Chundaria | near-e = Yellabinna<br/>Mitchidy Moola | near-se = Mitchidy Moola<br/>Fowlers Bay | near-s = ''Great Australian Bight''<br/>Coorabie<br/>Fowlers Bay | near-sw = ''Great Australian Bight'' | near-w = Nullarbor | near-nw = Nullarbor
| footnotes = Adjoining localities<ref name="LMV"/> }}
'''Yalata''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|y|æ|l|ə|t|ɑ:}} {{respell|yal|ə|TAH}}), in the isolated far west of South Australia, is both an Indigenous Protected Area and, within that, a township of the same name where an Aboriginal community lives. The township is {{convert|206 |km}} west of Ceduna – the nearest town – via the Eyre Highway, and {{convert|982|km|mi|abbr=off|comma=off}} by road from the state capital, Adelaide. It lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people. 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.
''The Atlas of South Australia'' describes the Yalata area as:<ref>{{Citation|author1=McCaskill, Murray, 1926-|author2=Griffin, Trevor, 1935-|author3=Wakefield Press|author4=South Australia Jubilee 150 Board|title=Atlas of South Australia|year=1986|publication-date=1986|publisher=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}}</ref>{{blockquote|...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== In the {{CensusAU|2021}}, the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area, including the Yalata township, had a population of 313 and the township's population was 302 – an increase of 54 or 22 per cent from the 2016 census – of whom 277 were Aboriginal.<ref name=census/> The population habitually fluctuates, up to about 500, depending on cultural business, seasons and other factors.<ref name=landscape>{{cite web|title=Alinytljara Wiluṟara: Our communities|website=Landscape South Australia|url=https://www.landscape.sa.gov.au/aw/visiting/our-communities|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref> Pitjantjatja was spoken as the primary language in 77.0% of homes in the Yalata area,<ref name=census/> specifically a southern dialect.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yalata.org/|title=Yalata Land Management|access-date=18 May 2006}}</ref><ref name=landscape/> Stated religious affiliation of residents was Lutheran 57.2%, Australian Aboriginal traditional religions 4.5%, and Anglican 1.0%; 23.6% made no statement as to religion and 11.8% stated "no religion".<ref name=census/>
==History== Yalata lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people.<ref>{{cite web|title=Map of Indigenous Australia|website=AIATSIS|first=David R.|last=Horton|date=1996|author-link=David Horton (writer)|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/explore/map-indigenous-australia|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref> Decades after the European settlement of South Australia began in 1836, a {{cvt|5000|ha|adj=on|abbr=off|comma=5}} sheep station known as Yalata station was established, with its homestead built in 1880 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.<ref>{{cite web|title=Old Yalata Homestead Ruins – SA|website=ExplorOz|date=24 October 2017|url=https://www.exploroz.com/places/114141/sa+old-yalata-homestead-ruins|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref name=brady1999>{{cite journal|last=Brady|first=Maggie|title=The politics of space and mobility: controlling the Ooldea/Yalata Aborigines, 1952–1982|journal=Aboriginal History|publisher=ANU Press|volume=23|year=1999|issn=0314-8769|jstor=24046757|pages=1–14|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24046757|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/sa/SE00146|website=Find & Connect|title=Ooldea Mission (1933-1952)|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
In 1951 South Australian Government bought the entire Yalata sheep station, including its 7000 sheep,<ref name=brady1999/> "for the benefit and use of aborigines", and in 1954 turned the whole area, other than 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 6000 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".<ref>{{cite report|url=https://aiatsis.gov.au/sites/default/files/docs/digitised_collections/remove/60848.pdf|via=AIATSIS|title=Report of the Aborigines Protection Board for the Year ended 30th June, 1954|date=1955|author=Aborigines Protection Board (South Australia)|page=5|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref name=brady1999/> 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.<ref name=fac>{{cite web|url=https://www.findandconnect.gov.au/ref/sa/biogs/SE01328b.htm#tab5|website=Find & Connect|title=Yalata Mission (1954-1974)|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article55748762|title=Hitch in Govt. plans for Ooldea natives|newspaper=The Mail (Adelaide)|volume=41|issue=2,066|location=South Australia|date=5 January 1952|access-date=18 October 2021|page=1|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The Lutheran missionaries planned to teach the mission residents how to raise sheep, and the mission would be run in conjunction with Koonibba.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48122909|title=Natives To Learn Sheep Raising|newspaper=The Advertiser|location=Adelaide|volume=97|issue=29,864|date=2 July 1954|access-date=18 October 2021|page=4|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The government would take about 50% of the gross income of the station.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47570970|title=Church To Take Over Yalata As Mission Station|newspaper=The Advertiser|location=Adelaide|volume=96|issue=29,760|date=2 March 1954|access-date=18 October 2021|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref>
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".<ref name=fac/>
By 1969, many of the 300 people living at the mission were working on the nearby Colona Station<ref>{{cite news|url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article107901876|title=A very advanced experiment|newspaper=The Canberra Times|volume=44|issue=12,460|date=5 November 1969|access-date=18 October 2021|page=2|via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> (which by around 2007 was part of the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/Yalata-BioSurvey.pdf|title=A Biological Survey of the Yalata Indigenous Protected Area, South Australia, 2007 – 2008|date=2009|access-date=18 October 2021|author=Neagle, N.|publisher=Department for Environment and Heritage, South Australia}}</ref>
In 1974 the Yalata Community Council took over the whole reserve, and the mission ceased operation as a mission.<ref name=fac/>
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 {{cvt|4580|km2|comma=off}} and span approximately {{cvt|150|km}} 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.{{Clarify|date=July 2016}}
Yalata Roadhouse was closed in 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/australia/sa/port/200602/s1575583.htm|title=Lease issues close roadhouse|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=28 April 2007}}</ref>
In August 2007, fire destroyed the shed-structure police station and associated home, with damage estimated at {{A$}}500,000.<ref>[http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22280940-5006301,00.html ''Fire destroys police station'', Adelaide Advertiser, 21 August 2007] ''Retrieved on 21 August 2007''</ref>
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.<ref name=aa2018>{{cite web|title=Australian Army in Yalata|publisher=ABC Eyre Peninsula|via=Facebook|url=https://www.facebook.com/ABCEyrePeninsula/posts/2175300469166581/|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
==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).<ref>{{cite web|title=Aboriginal and outback communities|website=LGA South Australia|date=6 July 2016|url=https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/sa-councils/councils-listing/accordion-items/aboriginal-outback-communities|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref> Yalata Land is held in trust under the ''Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966'' and covers an area of {{cvt|456,300|ha}}.<ref name=landscape/>
At the state and federal levels, Yalata lies in the electoral district of Flinders and at the division of Grey, respectively.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yalata, 5690|website=Location SA|url=http://location.sa.gov.au/viewer/?map=hybrid&x=131.84368&y=-31.48059&z=17&uids=19,11,20,105&pinx=131.840582&piny=-31.481790&pinTitle=Location&pinText=Yalata+Aboriginal+School,+Schl|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
==Facilities== There is a caravan park to assist tourists passing through or visiting the Great Australian Bight for fishing or whale watching.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nullarbornet.com.au/towns/yalata.html|title=Yalata|publisher=Nullarbor Net|access-date=21 May 2006}}</ref><ref name=aa2018/>
Yalata Anangu School provides R-12 education.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yalata Anangu School|website=My School|date=30 June 2021|url=https://www.myschool.edu.au/|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Department for Education|website=Yalata Anangu School|date=8 June 2021|url=https://yalataab.sa.edu.au/|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
The swimming pool reopened around 2024 after a period of closure, after much needed upgrades, including new rescue and safety equipment as well as new staff.<ref>{{cite web | title=Pukatja pool open after 20-year wait|first=Abe |last=Maddison | website=InDaily | date=14 January 2025 | url=https://www.indailysa.com.au/news/just-in/2025/01/14/kids-dive-into-pukatja-pool | access-date=18 January 2025}}</ref>
Yalata Mission Airport is a single-runway airstrip that serves the community and nearby lands.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.world-airport-codes.com/australia/yalata-mission-7741.html|title=Yalata Mission Airport (KYI)|website=World Airport Codes|access-date=18 October 2021}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==Further reading == *{{cite web|title=How the Aboriginal community displaced from Maralinga won their fight for tough laws on alcohol|publisher=ABC News|location=Australia|date=28 May 2020|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-28/yalatas-indigenous-communities-fight-for-tough-alcohol-laws/12275248}}
==External links== {{commons category-inline}} *{{official website|https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/sa-councils/councils-listing/accordion-items/aboriginal-outback-communities/aboriginal-communities/yalata-community|Yalata}} (Local Government Association of South Australia website) *{{cite web|website=South Australia For Everyone|title=Yalata|url=http://www.australiaforeveryone.com.au/files/sa/yalata.html}}
{{Aboriginal South Australians}} {{Local Government Areas of South Australia}} {{Towns Nullarbor}}
{{authority control}}
Category:Towns in South Australia Category:Aboriginal communities in South Australia Yalata Category:Nullarbor Plain Category:Eyre Highway