Kintore (

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into th ...

: ''Walungurru'') is a remote settlement in the Kintore Range of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

about west of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

and from the border with

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. It is also known as Walungurru, Walangkura, and Walangura.

History

The Kintore Range was named by William Tietkens during his expedition of 1889 after the

Governor of South Australia The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the monarch, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-general of Aust ...

, Algernon Keith-Falconer, 9th Earl of Kintore. In 1979 and 1980 satisfactory water was found in four bores sunk at and near the Kintore Range. In mid-1981 an outstation (homeland) was established there and developed as a resource centre for camps elsewhere in the region, allowing the reoccupation of at least some of the Pintupi country. The community was founded in 1981, when many

people who lived in the community of

Papunya Papunya ( Pintupi-Luritja: ''Warumpi'') is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian ar ...

(about from Alice Springs) became unhappy with their circumstances in what they saw as foreign country, and decided to move back to their own country, from which they had been forcibly removed decades earlier due to weapons testing from Woomera in

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

, as part of the

outstation movement An outstation, homeland or homeland community is a very small, often remote, permanent community of Aboriginal Australian people connected by Aboriginal kinship, kinship, on land that often, but not always, has social, cultural or economic signi ...

Demographics

At the 2016 census, Kintore had a population of 410, of which 376 (91.9 per cent) identified themselves as

Aboriginal Australians Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands. Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...

. The main languages spoken are

and

Luritja The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte p ...

. In

, the majority language of the community, Kintore is known as ''Walungurru'' ().

Governance

Kintore is overseen by the MacDonnell Regional Council, based in

. The town is in the territory electorate of Gwoja and the federal electorate of Lingiari.

Facilities

The community has a

Northern Territory Government The Northern Territory Government is the executive branch of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory was formed in 1978 with the granting of self-government to the Territory. The Northern Territory is a territory of the Co ...

-funded primary school, an independent store trading as Puli Kutjarra (meaning Two Rocks/mountains in Pintupi language), an airstrip, an independent health clinic called Pintupi Homelands Health Service, a women's centre called Ngintaka Women's Centre,

haemodialysis Hemodialysis, also spelled haemodialysis, or simply ''"'dialysis'"'', is a process of filtering the blood of a person whose kidneys are not working normally. This type of dialysis achieves the extracorporeal removal of waste products such as c ...

at The Purple House run by Western Desert Dialysis, a high school run by Yirara College, The local

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

team is the Kintore Hawks.

Art centre

There is an arts centre run by Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd. Kintore is a major centre for the Western Desert art movement which began at the community of

. These people traditionally passed on significant

Dreamtime The Dreaming, also referred to as Dreamtime, is a term devised by early anthropologists to refer to a religio-cultural worldview attributed to Australian Aboriginal religion and mythology, Australian Aboriginal mythology. It was originally u ...

stories by way of art using sand, rock and local plants. Nowadays such paintings are done on canvas and have gained worldwide popularity. A number of members of the famous Aboriginal art company Papunya Tula] live at Kintore, among them the deceased artist Ningura Napurrula.

In popular culture

Kintore is mentioned in the

Midnight Oil Midnight Oil (known informally as "The Oils") are an Australian rock band composed of Peter Garrett (vocals, harmonica), Rob Hirst (drums), Jim Moginie (guitar, keyboard) and Martin Rotsey (guitar). The group was formed in Sydney in 1972 by H ...

song " Beds are Burning": "Four wheels scare the cockatoos/From Kintore east to

Yuendumu Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a ...

". British novelist and travel writer

Bruce Chatwin Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storytelling, s ...

stayed in Kintore for a two week period, starting 18 March 1984, while researching his book The Songlines. The village plays a central role in the story, referred to in the book as "Cullen".Shakespeare, Nicholas (1999). Bruce Chatwin. The Harvill Press. ISBN 1-86046-544-7. Page 499

Climate

Footnotes

References

{{authority control Populated places established in 1981 Towns in the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory MacDonnell Region