Photos of Walungurru (Kintore) region - The Territory's Far West, Australia

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Walungurru (Kintore) region - The Territory's Far West

As recently as 1957 a group of Aboriginal people, who never had had any contact with the "modern world" were discovered near Lake Mackay, on the border between Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Later expeditions in 1963 into the desert found more people still living a traditional life, unchanged for thousands of years. These were all Pintubi (or Bindibu) people, the last Aborigines to live this life: they were taken to Papunya community, given clothes and had to adapt to a way of life totally alien to them. As all traditional Aboriginal people are intimately tied to the land of their ancestors and "dreaming places", sites of ceremonial significance, they longed to get back.

In Wa<u>l</u>ungurru (Kintore)
 
Arriving in Wa<u>l</u>ungurru
 
Dust storm
 
View of Kintore
 
Road to the shop
 
Boys with bikes
 
View of Wa<u>l</u>ungurru
 
View towards Ngutjul
 
Looking towards Tinki
 
Tinki Rockhole
 
Ngutjul
 
Boulders, Ngutjul
 
View from Ngutjul
 
Near Wa<u>l</u>ungurru
 
View near Kintore
 
Approaching storm
 
Dust and rainstorm
 
Kintore Creek
 
Creek in Wa<u>l</u>ungurru
 
Gun Barrel Highway
 
Warning sign
 
Tjukurla turn off
 
Entering Peterman Land
 
View from Ngutjul
 
Heavy rain in Kintore
 
Car wrecks
 
Playing football
 
Humpies in Wa<u>l</u>ungurru
 
Flying over Kintore
 
School class
 
Teacher and student
 
Kintore church
 
Pintubi boys, Ngutjul
 
At Ngutjul
 
Pintubi kids, Ngutjul
 
Red rocks, Ngutjul
 

In 1981 the Pintubi moved back and the small community of Kintore or Walungurru was founded, 530 kilometres west of Alice Springs, at the base of Pulikatjara, two culturally important hills. The community now has a population of about 450, although about 60 people have decided to live in small "outstations" or "Homeland Centres", their real clan areas. The main community is administered by its Council. There is a school, a women's centre, a clinic, a store, an art centre and an airstrip provides regular flights to Alice Springs.

There are seven outstations, serviced by the council, with populations between 4 and 15. One of these, Ngutjul, is situated next to a dramatic set of red hills, a site of ceremonial significance and a good illustration of the label "The Red Centre". A family of 12 lives nearby. The road continues south west from Sandy Blight Junction near Walungurru to cross into Western Australia, linking up with the "Gunbarrel Highway", which used to be the first link between Western Australia and Central Australia. The rough red gravel road, after about 300 kilometres, then doubles back into the Territory to Kaltukatjara (Docker River) Aboriginal Community and on to Uluru (Ayers Rock).