Areyonga

History

Areyonga was founded during the 1920s. A long drought forced Pitjantatjara families to leave Kaḻṯukatjara and other places in the Petermann Ranges. They originally moved to Hermannsburg and then set up a new community at Areyonga. A Lutheran mission was established in the settlement in the 1940s. In the 1970s, many people from the mission moved back to the community at Kaḻṯukatjara. The Lutheran mission at Areyonga was closed in 1990, and the land was given back to the native people as part of the Haasts Bluff Aboriginal Land Trust. The term "Finke River Mission" was initially an alternative name for the mission at Hermannsburg, but this name was later often used to include the settlements at Haasts Bluff, Areyonga and, later, Papunya. It now refers to all Lutheran missionary activity in Central Australia since the first mission was established at Hermannsburg in 1877. In the 1950s and 60s, many of the local women worked as domestic servants for white families, and the men in orchards and public utilities. The children were put in uniforms and taken to school by white people, and afterwards taken back to camp. Through the 1970s to 1980s, a number of models of self-governing councils were trialled.

Most-observed species

• Brown Falcon

  Falco berigora Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  4
• Cundeelee Grass-tree

  Xanthorrhoea thorntonii Tate · Liliopsida
  4
• horse

  Equus caballus Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  3
• Black-faced Cuckooshrike

  Coracina novaehollandiae (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  3
• Yellow-throated Miner

  Manorina flavigula (Gould, 1840) · Aves
  3
• Willie-wagtail

  Rhipidura leucophrys (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  3
• Arabian Camel

  Camelus dromedarius Linnaeus, 1758 · Mammalia
  2
• Monistria pustulifera (Walker, 1871)

  Monistria pustulifera (Walker, 1871) · Insecta
  1