Jay Creek is in the
MacDonnell Ranges west of
Alice Springs in the
Northern Territory
The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aust ...
in Australia. It was a
government reserve for
Aboriginal Australians
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 Isl ...
which for a time in the late 1920s and early 1930s included 45 children from a home named "
The Bungalow
The Bungalow was an institution for Aboriginal children established in 1914 in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It existed at several locations in Alice Springs (then called Stuart), Jay Creek and the Alice Springs Tele ...
"(37 of whom were under the age of 12) temporarily housed in a
corrugated iron
Corrugated galvanised iron or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America) and occasionally abbreviated CGI is a ...
shed with a superintendent and matron housed separately in two tents.
Jay Creek was home to the
Western Arrernte
Arrernte or Aranda (; ) or sometimes referred to as Upper Arrernte (Upper Aranda), is a dialect cluster in the Arandic language group spoken in parts of the Northern Territory, Australia, by the Arrernte people. Other spelling variations are A ...
people. In 1937 Jay Creek was declared as one of three permanent camps or
reserves for the Alice Springs Aboriginal population. It was intended a buffer between the semi-nomadic people living in far western regions and the more sophisticated inhabitants of Alice Springs and environs, in particular for the non-working, aged and infirm around Alice.
References
{{coord, -23.750, 133.517, region:AU_type:landmark, format=dms, display=title
Ghost towns in the Northern Territory
Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory
Indigenous Australian reserves