Kalka is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in

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 ...

administered under the '' Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act 1981''. At the 2016 Australian census, Kalka had a population of 92. The community uses many of the facilities at nearby Pipalyatjara.

Geography

Kalka is situated in the far northwest of

, right alongside the

Gunbarrel Highway The Gunbarrel Highway is an isolated desert track in the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia. It consists of about of washaways, heavy corrugations, stone, sand and flood plains. The Gunbarrel Highway connects Victory D ...

. The Kalka community is just kilometres from the Surveyor-General's Corner (the intersection of the

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 ...

and

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 ...

borders). The community of Pipalyatjara is situated 15 kilometres away by road, on the south side of the mountain ridge of which Kalka sits on the north. Kalka is situated at the foot of the

Tomkinson Ranges The Tomkinson Ranges is a mountain range in the northwest corner of South Australia. The range consists of sandstone hills, surrounded by spinifex grasslands. The range was named after politician Samuel Tomkinson (1816–1900) by the explorer W ...

Climate

Based upon the climate records of the

Giles Weather Station Giles Weather Station (also referred to as Giles Meteorological Station or Giles) is located in Western Australia near the Northern Territory border, about west-south-west of Alice Springs and west of Uluru. It is the only staffed weather sta ...

which is across the border and slightly to the northwest in

, Kalka experiences summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.2 degrees Celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.9 degrees Celsius in July. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 23.5 degrees in January to 6.8 degrees in June. Annual rainfall averages 284.2 millimetres.

Population

At the 2016 Australian census, Kalka had a population of 92. The median age was 25 years old. Fifteen years earlier, the 2001

Australian Census The Census in Australia, officially the Census of Population and Housing, is the national census in Australia that occurs every five years. The census collects key demographic, social and economic data from all people in Australia on census nig ...

indicated a total population of 139, with 90.6% being

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

History

According to PY Media:

Kalka Community is the administrative and residential centre for Pitjantjatjara Homelands Council. PHC is an incorporated Aboriginal organisation that exists to further the social, economic, political and cultural interests of its members. PHC was born out of the Aboriginal
homelands movement An outstation, homeland or homeland community is a very small, often remote, permanent community of Aboriginal Australian people connected by kinship, on land that often, but not always, has social, cultural or economic significance to them, as ...
of the 1970s when Anangu left the missions and government settlements to the east and west and returned to their traditional country. Many Anangu had been brought into or were attracted into these settlements during the 1950s and 1960s when the Australian Government ran the
Maralinga Maralinga, in the remote western areas of South Australia, was the site, measuring about in area, of British nuclear tests in the mid-1950s. In January 1985 native title was granted to the Maralinga Tjarutja, a southern Pitjantjatjara Aborig ...
atomic bomb tests and Woomera rocket tests. Kalka was originally planned as a resource centre for surrounding homelands but by the early 1990s it had developed into a small Aboriginal community with the full range of housing, infrastructure and service needs.

The settlement was funded by the federal government as an outstation (homeland) during the 1980s.PDF
/ref>

Facilities

Kalka Community has an unsealed airstrip. None of the roads within the community are sealed, though work to seal the roads was scheduled for completion by mid-2007. A fortnightly truck brings fresh, frozen and dry groceries and other freight to the community. There is no school or health clinic at Kalka, both services of which are supplied from nearby Pipalyatjara. A Technical and Further Education (TAFE) facility provides education on running a store or office, computer and Internet use. The TAFE also assists students in getting their driver's licence. The Kalka community also has a small community store (said to be the only Anangu-run store on the APY Lands), a craft facility, children's playground, basketball court, administrative office and mechanic garage. The South Australian Department for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation (DAARE) provide many essential services. Essential services support comes via Pipalyatjara. Kalka does not have a permanent police presence.

South Australian 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 ...

police are based at

Marla Marla is a town and locality in the Australian state of South Australia located in the state's north-west about north-west of the state capital of Adelaide and about south of the town of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. History Marla ...

and run patrols in the area. Unlike other communities on the APY Lands, no community constable is based at Kalka.SA Police Association
/ref> A mobile polling booth visits nearby Pipalyatjara for elections every 4 years to elect the

Parliament of South Australia The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly ( lower house) and the 22-seat Legislative Council (upper house). General elections are ...

. A permit is required for a member of the public to visit any community on the APY Lands, as they are freehold lands owned by the

Aboriginal people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Footnotes

External links

*
Kalka description at DAARE
{{authority control Towns in South Australia Aboriginal communities in South Australia Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara