Ilkurlka, sometimes spelt Ilkulka, is a location on the

Anne Beadell Highway Anne Beadell Highway is an outback unsealed track linking Coober Pedy, South Australia, and Laverton, Western Australia, a total distance of . The track was surveyed and built by Len Beadell, Australian surveyor, who named it after his wife. Th ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, comprising a roadhouse, tiny outstation and cultural centre of the

Spinifex people The Pila Nguru, often referred to in English as the Spinifex people, are an Aboriginal Australian people of Western Australia, whose lands extend to the border with South Australia and to the north of the Nullarbor Plain. The centre of their h ...

History

The

, a group of

Aboriginal Australian Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, such as Tasmania, Fraser Island, Hinchinbrook Island, the Tiwi Islands, and Groote Eylandt, but excluding the Torres Strait Islands ...

peoples, occupied the

Great Victoria Desert The Great Victoria Desert is a sparsely populated desert ecoregion and interim Australian bioregion in Western Australia and South Australia. History In 1875, British-born Australian explorer Ernest Giles became the first European to cross th ...

up to 25,000 years ago. After displacement to Yakatunya by

British nuclear tests at Maralinga Between 1956 and 1963, the United Kingdom conducted seven nuclear tests at the Maralinga site in South Australia, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area about north west of Adelaide. Two major test series were conducted: Operation Buffalo in 1956 ...

in the 1950s, and subsequent compensation paid decades afterwards, Spinifex people built water bores and

airstrip An aerodrome (Commonwealth English) or airdrome (American English) is a location from which aircraft flight operations take place, regardless of whether they involve air cargo, passengers, or neither, and regardless of whether it is for publ ...

s at Tjuntjuntjara and Ilkurlka. By around 1989 the Spinifex people had moved from Yakatunya and resettled at Tjuntjuntjara and Ilkurlka. Following a 1995 native title claim, the Spinifex people were granted native title over 55,000 sq km (5.5 million ha) of the Great Victoria Desert in 2000. Ilkurlka is located in the centre of these lands.

Description

The main structures at Ilkurlka are the buildings comprising the roadhouse and visitors' centre, which includes an art gallery showcasing the work of local artists. Built in 2003 by the

, the main purpose of the roadhouse is to serve the

Aboriginal Aborigine, aborigine or aboriginal may refer to: *Aborigines (mythology), in Roman mythology * Indigenous peoples, general term for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area *One of several groups of indigenous peoples, see ...

communities to the north and south, such as Tjuntjuntjara. The roadhouse is managed by Ilkurlka Aboriginal Corporation on behalf of the

traditional owners Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have rights ...

of the land. All facilities are

solar-powered Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...

, with a generator for backup if needed. , the roadhouse is run by British-born Philip Merry, who has been in charge for 12 years.

Art

There is a large U-shaped

rockhole A panhole is a depression or basin eroded into flat or gently sloping cohesive rock.Twidale, C.R., and Bourne, J.A., 2018''Rock basins (gnammas) revisited. ''Géomorphologie: Relief, Processus, Environnement, Articles sous presse, Varia, mis en l ...

nearby known as Ikurlka rockhole, which has been depicted in a painting by local artist

Simon Hogan Simon Hogan (born 16 August 1988) is a former Australian rules footballer for the Geelong Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). AFL career Early career Hogan was recruited from the Geelong Falcons by Geelong at pick 57 in th ...

, now hanging in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. Hogan has travelled around Australia and Europe with travelling exhibitions, including to the UK for the exhibition containing his work at the British Museum in 2015. A photograph of Hogan shaking the hand of King Charles (then Prince) hangs in the roadhouse gallery. The roadhouse is the gallery outlet for the Spinifex Arts Project, and has paintings by well-known local artists, most of whom live in Tjuntjuntjara, on sale.

Location and travellers' facilities

Located west of the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

border, the roadhouse is the only fuel and supplies depot on the desert track between Laverton and

Coober Pedy Coober Pedy () is a town in northern South Australia, north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. The town is sometimes referred to as the "opal capital of the world" because of the quantity of precious opals that are mined there. Coober Pedy is ...

known as the Anne Beadell Highway.It is east of Laverton and west of Coober Pedy. The nearest community is

Cosmo Newberry Cosmo Newbery (also spelt Cosmo Newberry) is a small Aboriginal community in Western Australia, east of Perth between Laverton and Warburton in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. In the , Cosmo Newberry had a total popul ...

, to the west, making this the most isolated roadhouse in Australia. There is accommodation in the form of a studio, built on top of a hill, and a campsite with a hot shower, toilet and covered barbeque area. Basic

DIY "Do it yourself" ("DIY") is the method of building, modifying, or repairing things by oneself without the direct aid of professionals or certified experts. Academic research has described DIY as behaviors where "individuals use raw and semi ...

mechanical repairs are available. There is also an airstrip, mostly used by the weekly mail plane. As the roadhouse is on the land of the Spinifex people, no alcohol is available.

References

External links

*
Ikurlka Roadhouse
on ExplorOz {{authority control Towns in Western Australia Aboriginal communities in Goldfields-Esperance Roadhouses in Western Australia