Wingellina or Irrunytju Community is a small

Indigenous Australian 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 ...

community in

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 ...

located about north east of

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

near the Western Australian-South Australian border in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia. Surrounded by large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

hills with mulga and mallee country, the community maintains many traditional activities such as hunting and gathering

bush tucker Bush tucker, also called bush food, is any food native to Australia and used as sustenance by Indigenous Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, but it can also describe any native flora or fauna used for culinary or ...

as well as making many carved wooden artefacts. The community is situated 12 km south west of the

Surveyor Generals Corner Surveyor Generals Corner (or Surveyor-Generals Corner) is a remote point where the Australian state boundaries of South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory meet. These boundaries meet at the easternmost point of the appro ...

near the NT-SA-WA border in the Gibson and

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 cros ...

History

The community was established in the 1980s and was composed mainly of people from the Warburton mission. These people still have spiritual and ancestral ties to many parts of the region. Like other communities in the area, many came from South Australia because of rocket testing at Woomera.

Town planning

Wingellina Layout Plan No.1 has been prepared in accordance with State Planning Policy 3.2 Aboriginal Settlements. It currently exists in draft format only, having not been endorsed by the community. The map set is viewable at Planning Western Australia's website.

Native title

The community is located within the determined

Ngaanyatjarra The Ngaanyatjarra, also known (along with the Pini) as the Nana, are an Indigenous Australian cultural group of Western Australia. They are located in the Goldfields-Esperance region, as well as Northern Territory. Language Ngaanyatjarra is ...

Lands (Part A) native title claim (WC04/3).

References

External links

Native Title Claimant application summary
{{authority control Shire of Ngaanyatjarraku Aboriginal communities in Goldfields-Esperance