Kalkaringi (formerly Wave Hill Welfare Settlement, also spelt Kalkarindji ) is a town and locality in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, located on the

Buntine Highway The Buntine Highway is a 581-kilometre highway in the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It runs from the Victoria Highway via Top Springs and Kalkarindji and then to Nicholson, Western Australia. The section from the Victoria Highway ...

about south of the territory capital of Darwin and located about south of the municipal seat in

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...

History

Kalkarindji and the nearby settlement of

Daguragu __NOTOC__ Daguragu, previously also known as Wattie Creek by the Gurindji people, is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about south of the territory capital of Darwin and located about south-west of the municipal seat i ...

are the population centres of the land formerly held under the Wave Hill Cattle Station. In 1966, the Aboriginal station workers, led by

Vincent Lingiari Vincent Lingiari (13 June 1908 or 1919 – 21 January 1988) was an Australian Aboriginal rights activist and member of the Gurindji people. In his early life he started as a stockman at Wave Hill Station, where the Aboriginal workers were giv ...

, staged the

Gurindji strike The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle stati ...

, also known as the Wave Hill Walk Off, in protest against oppressive labour practices and land dispossession. A portion of land was returned to the

Gurindji people The Gurindji are an Aboriginal Australian people of northern Australia, southwest of Katherine in the Northern Territory's Victoria River region. Language and culture Gurindji is one of the eastern Ngumbin languages, in the Ngumbin-Yapa s ...

in by UK-based station owners, the

Vestey Group Vestey Holdings, formerly Vestey Group and previously also known as Vestey Brothers, is a privately-owned UK group of companies comprising an international business focused mainly on food products and services. The company has owned vast holdin ...

, after negotiations by the Whitlam government in 1975. Kalkarindji reportedly began in 1972 as the "Wave Hill Aboriginal Township." On 5 October 1976, land was associated with existing settlement was proclaimed under the Northern Territory’s Crown Lands Ordinance as a town named "Kalkaringi". In 1985, the spelling of the town’s name was changed to "Kalkarindji" after a review of the original spelling by tribal elders. As of 2006, Daguragu Community Government Council provided "municipal and other services to the township and surrounds of Kalkaringi (formerly known as Wave Hill) and to Daguragu, a community settled on land under the ''

Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 The ''Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976'' (ALRA) is Australian federal government legislation that provides the basis upon which Aboriginal Australian people in the Northern Territory can claim rights to land based on traditi ...

''". The total council area was about . Kalkaringi was within a gazetted township area, with the land being leasehold under the auspices of the

Northern Territory Government The Government of the Northern Territory of Australia, also referred to as the Northern Territory Government, is the Australian territorial democratic administrative authority of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory wa ...

. The existing boundaries and name were gazetted by the Northern Territory Government under the ''Place Names Act'' on 4 April 2007.

Heritage sites

The Wave Hill walk-off route was listed on the

Northern Territory Heritage Register The Northern Territory Heritage Register is a heritage register, being a statutory list of places in the Northern Territory of Australia that are protected by the Northern Territory statute, the ''Heritage Act 2011''. The register is maintained b ...

on 23 August 2006 and on the

Australian National Heritage List The Australian National Heritage List or National Heritage List (NHL) is a heritage register, a list of national heritage places deemed to be of outstanding heritage significance to Australia, established in 2003. The list includes natural and ...

on 9 August 2007. There are also seven other associated sites on the National Heritage List, of which five are in the Kalkaringi area and two within Daguragu.

Demographics

The

2016 Australian census The 2016 Australian census was the 17th national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was counted as – an incre ...

which was conducted in August 2016 reports that Kalkarindji had 334 people living within its boundaries of which 285 (84.8%) identified as " Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples".

Governance

Kalkarindji is located within the federal

division of Lingiari The Division of Lingiari is an Australian electoral division in the Northern Territory that covers the entirety of the territory outside of the Division of Solomon, which covers Darwin and surrounding areas. The division also includes the Ch ...

, the territory electoral division of Stuart and the local government area of the

Victoria Daly Region The Victoria Daly Regional Council is a local government area in the Northern Territory of Australia. The shire covers an area of and had a population of 3,138 in June 2018. History In October 2006 the Northern Territory Government announced ...

. The council office for the

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

of Kalkarindji/Daguragu is located in Kalkarindji, and is also the service centre for Daguragu, which is north-west of Kalkarindji, adjacent to Wattie Creek. The Gurindji Aboriginal Corporation is a

Registered Native Title Body Corporate A Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) is a corporation nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people for the purposes of native title in Australia, to represent their native title rights and interests, once tha ...

(RNTBC) owned by the communities of Kalkaringi and Daguragu, a total of about 700 people of mainly Gurindji,

Mudburra The Mudburra, also spelt Mudbara and other variants, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Language Mudburra is one of the far eastern forms of the Pama-Nyungan Ngumbin languages. Country The Mudburra people live in ...

and Warlpiri heritage. It oversees a number of community-owned enterprises, such as the Kalkaringi Store and Caravan Park. Daguragu community is situated on Aboriginal land held under perpetual title.

Meat dump dispute

There have been several legal disputes between the owners of Kalkarindji Meats, Windbox Pty Ltd, and the Gurindji Aboriginal Corporation as well as the

Central Land Council The Central Land Council (CLC) is a land council that represents the Aboriginal peoples of the southern half of the Northern Territory of Australia (NT), predominantly with regard to land issues. it is one of four land councils in the Northern Te ...

over various matters. In February 2019 it was discovered that there had been pits dug for dumping meat waste within the native title area of Kalkarindji and very near to the heritage-listed Wave Hill track. This continued on and off until September 2020, when both the

and

Commonwealth government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government i ...

s started an investigation into the matter.

2020 Wave Hill native title

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

claim was lodged in 2016 by the

on behalf of the

traditional owner 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 ...

s, as there were mining interests in area covered by

Wave Hill Station Wave Hill Station, most commonly referred to as Wave Hill, is a pastoral lease in the Northern Territory operating as a cattle station. The property is best known as the scene of the Wave Hill walk-off, a strike by Indigenous Australian w ...

's pastoral lease. On 8 September 2020, the

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

recognised the native title rights of the Gurindji people to of the Wave Hill Station, allowing them to receive royalties as compensation from resource companies who explore the area. Justice Richard White said that the determination recognised Indigenous involvement (Jamangku, Japuwuny, Parlakuna-Parkinykarni and Yilyilyimawu peoples) with the land "at least since European settlement and probably for millennia". The court sitting took place nearly south of Darwin, and descendants of Lingiari and others involved in the walk-off celebrated the determination. The owners will participate in the mining negotiations and exploration work, from which royalties may flow in the future, which may allow people in the Kalkarindji and Daguragu communities to create their own businesses. Just as important is the right to hunt, gather, teach and perform cultural activities and

ceremonies A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion. The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''. Church and civil (secular) ...

, and allow the young people to connect with their land. The

Freedom Day Festival The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle stati ...

celebrates the

Wave Hill walk-off The Wave Hill walk-off, also known as the Gurindji strike, was a walk-off and strike by 200 Gurindji stockmen, house servants and their families, starting on 23 August 1966 and lasting for seven years. It took place at Wave Hill, a cattle stati ...

and Gurindji culture each year in Kalkaringi.

History

Heritage sites

Demographics

Governance

Meat dump dispute

2020 Wave Hill native title

See also

References

Further reading