Iltur is a remote

Pitjantjatjara The Pitjantjatjara (; or ) are an Aboriginal people of the Central Australian desert near Uluru. They are closely related to the Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra and their languages are, to a large extent, mutually intelligible (all are vari ...

homeland in 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 ...

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 ...

. It is also known as Coffin Hill after the rocky outcrop where it is located, and the traditional country surrounding it is known in Pitjantjatjara as Ilturnga. It is located at the southern end of the

Birksgate Range The Birksgate Range is a scattered range of mountains in the northwest of South Australia. It is located on the northeastern edges of the Great Victoria Desert, spreading for about from Iltur in the southeast to Watarru in the northwest. The no ...

, and is one of the most southerly locations on the

Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands Aṉangu is the name used by members of several Aboriginal Australian groups, roughly approximate to the Western Desert cultural bloc, to describe themselves. The term, which embraces several distinct "tribes" or peoples, in particular the Nga ...

. It was visited by the Elder Scientific Exploring Expedition in 1881, led by the explorer David Lindsay. Many of the families who had lived in this region historically were forced to leave the area due to

nuclear weapon A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

s tests at Maralinga. They were moved northward to

Fregon Kaltjiti, formerly and also still known as Fregon, is an Aboriginal community in Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Ernabella ...

and southward to

Yalata Yalata is an Aboriginal community located west of Ceduna and 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 ea ...

. Not all of them left, however, and some still living around Iltur reported that they were affected by the

fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

of the tests. In 1976, the Department of Aboriginal Affairs offered AU$10,000 for the establishment of an outstation at Iltur. An outstation was built, but is not always occupied.

References

Aboriginal communities in South Australia {{Australia-geo-stub