Yalata

History

Yalata lies on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people. Decades after the European settlement of South Australia began in 1836, a sheep station known as Yalata station was established, with its homestead built in 1880 on a high hill inland from Fowlers Bay, where there was then a town known as Yalata. Its land stretched from the Nullarbor Plain across to Point Brown near Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula. The huge sheep station ran up to 120,000 sheep at times. In the 1950s, areas around Maralinga and Emu were used for nuclear testing by the British Government. Around this time the Australian Government resumed much Anangu land to be used for the Woomera Rocket testing Range. Aboriginal people in the area, who were Pila Nguru (Spinifex people, of the Great Victoria Desert) were moved to a United Aborigines Mission (UAM) at Ooldea, before that closed in 1952 due to internal divisions. The people did not want to move from there, as they were used to ranging the desert, and had used the Ooldea Soak as a water source for many generations. In 1951 South Australian Government bought the entire Yalata sheep station, including its 7000 sheep, A group of Ooldea people who were in the process of moving themselves to Ernabella and many others were forcibly removed to Yalata, which was an environment quite alien to them. Before the mission was set up, the Lutherans were concerned that having a different denomination such as the UAM running a mission so close to Koonibba would confuse the Aboriginal people who would inevitably move between the two, as the teachings were different. The Lutheran missionaries planned to teach the mission residents how to raise sheep, and the mission would be run in conjunction with Koonibba. The government would take about 50% of the gross…

Most-observed species

• Yellow-plumed Honeyeater

  Ptilotula ornata (Gould, 1838) · Aves
  25
• Red Wattlebird

  Anthochaera carunculata (Shaw, 1790) · Aves
  22
• Australian Raven

  Corvus coronoides Vigors & Horsfield, 1827 · Aves
  16
• Dusky Woodswallow

  Artamus cyanopterus (Latham, 1802) · Aves
  16
• Striated Pardalote

  Pardalotus striatus (Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  12
• Yellow-throated Miner

  Manorina flavigula (Gould, 1840) · Aves
  11
• Rufous Treecreeper

  Climacteris rufus Gould, 1841 · Aves
  11
• Galah

  Eolophus roseicapilla (Vieillot, 1817) · Aves
  10