Kulgera is a locality in 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 ...

of Australia. It is south 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 north of the border with

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 ...

, making it the southernmost permanent settlement in the Northern Territory. It sits on the junction of the

Stuart Highway Stuart Highway is a major Australian highway. It runs from Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, in the Northern Territory, via Tennant Creek and Alice Springs, to Port Augusta in South Australia; it has a distance of . Its northern and souther ...

and the road to Aputula. In the 2006 Australian census it had a population of 50.

History

Kulgera is the Pitjantjatjara name for an outcrop of granite rocks just east of the settlement. According to Nicolas Rothwell, Kulgera is derived from ''kalgka'' in the Pertam language of the mountains and that word "refers to a particularly private recess of a private part of the female anatomy"."A farm by any other name"
by Nicolas Rothwell, ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'', 23 December 2013 A

pastoral lease A pastoral lease, sometimes called a pastoral run, is an arrangement used in both Australia and New Zealand where government-owned Crown land is leased out to Pastoral farming, graziers for the purpose of livestock grazing on rangelands. Austral ...

of to the north east of the outcrop was granted to the Coulthard family in 1928 and was named Kulgera Station.

Transport

Kulgera is located on

. It is served by Greyhound Australia. Being the closest settlement to the South Australia/Northern Territory border makes it a well-known locality among travellers. Kulgera railway station is 12 km east of the settlement on the Adelaide–Darwin railway.

The Ghan ''The Ghan'' () is an experiential tourism-oriented passenger train service that operates between the northern and southern coasts of Australia, through the cities of Adelaide, Alice Springs and Darwin on the Adelaide–Darwin rail corridor ...

, run by Journey Beyond Rail between Adelaide and Darwin arrives twice weekly in each direction.Australian Railmaps
"Rail Map - Perth to Adelaide, Central and Northern Australia"
Accessed 12 June 2007. Kulgera Airport (

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

: KGR,

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...

: YKUL) is adjacent to the settlement but is served only by

charter flight Air charter is the business of renting an entire aircraft (i.e., chartering) as opposed to individual aircraft seats (i.e., purchasing a ticket through a traditional airline). Regulation Charter – also called air taxi or ad hoc – flights ...

Climate

Climate staticstics were monitored in Kulgera since 1968.

In popular culture

Kulgera features in the

Redgum Redgum were an Australian bush band, folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson (composer), Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were ...

song "Lear Jets Over Kulgera" from their 1981 album ''

Brown Rice and Kerosine ''Brown Rice and Kerosine'' is the third album by Australian folk-rock group Redgum. The title is taken from the first track, and the album was released around the time Redgum changed from a part-time band to a full-time job for its members. "1 ...

''.

References

Towns in the Northern Territory {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub