| Jigalong Western Australia | |
|---|---|
  Jigalong | |
 | |
| Coordinates | 23°21′41″S120°47′01″E / 23.36139°S 120.78361°E |
| Population | 289 (UCL 2021) [1] |
| Established | 1907 |
| Elevation | 524 m (1,719 ft) |
| Area | 111.6 km2 (43.1 sq mi) |
| Location | 1,070 km (665 mi) NNE of Perth |
| LGA(s) | Shire of East Pilbara |
| State electorate(s) | Pilbara |
| Federal division(s) | Durack |
Jigalong is a remote Aboriginal community of approximately 333 people located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Jigalong is in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, approximately 165 kilometres (103 mi) east of the town of Newman in the Shire of East Pilbara local government area. The community is located in an Aboriginal Lands Trust reserve on the western edge of the Little Sandy Desert. [2] The traditional owners of the land are the Martu people, represented by the Western Desert Lands Aboriginal Corporation. [3]
The 2016 Australian census recorded the population of Jigalong as 333 people, of whom 87% were Aboriginal. [4]
The Jigalong Remote Community School provides education from kindergarten to Year 12 level, with six teachers for a student enrolment of around 120 children. [5]
The community has a medical centre run by the Puntukurnu Aboriginal Medical Services, [6] but patients with serious illnesses and injuries are usually flown to Port Hedland—400 kilometres (250 mi) north west of Jigalong—by the Royal Flying Doctor Service. [7]
In 2019, the Army Aboriginal Community Assistance Program, a joint project between National Indigenous Australians Agency (formerly the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet) and the Australian Army, commissioned the creation of a community-owned youth centre, and facilitated the development of an outdoor barbecue setting, creek culvert and public amenities block.
The community also hosts a range of stakeholder facilities, including a BHP construction shed, and a women's centre run by Ashburton Aboriginal Corporation. [8]
Jigalong was established in 1907, as the location for a maintenance and rations store for workmen constructing the rabbit-proof fence. In the 1930s, it was used as a camel-breeding site, but this use was abandoned once the motor car superseded the camel as a mode of transport. In 1947, the land was granted to the Apostolic Church, which used it as a Christian mission, and set up the Aboriginal community. The land was returned to the Australian government in 1969 as an Aboriginal reserve, and was granted to the Martu people in 1974. [9]
The community is covered by the registered Nyiyaparli Title claim (WC05/6). [10]
Jigalong Layout Plan No.2 was prepared in accordance with State Planning Policy 3.2 Aboriginal Settlements, and was endorsed by the community in 2005 and the Western Australian Planning Commission in 2006. [11]
Jigalong was the home of Molly Craig, a young Aboriginal girl whose 1,600-kilometre (990 mi) trek with her sister Daisy from the Moore River Native Settlement back to Jigalong was described in the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Molly's daughter Doris Pilkington Garimara. In 2002, the book was made into a film, Rabbit-Proof Fence , directed by Phillip Noyce, and the film's world premiere was held in the town. [12]
The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion, located in the northeast of Western Australia straddling the Pilbara and southern Kimberley regions and extending east into the Northern Territory. It is the second largest desert in Australia after the Great Victoria Desert and encompasses an area of 284,993 square kilometres (110,036 sq mi). The Gibson Desert lies to the south and the Tanami Desert lies to the east of the Great Sandy Desert.
Rabbit-Proof Fence is a 2002 Australian drama film directed and produced by Phillip Noyce based on the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence by Doris Pilkington Garimara. It is loosely based on a true story concerning the author's mother Molly Craig, as well as two other Aboriginal girls, Daisy Kadibil and Gracie, who escape from the Moore River Native Settlement, north of Perth, Western Australia, to return to their Aboriginal families, after being placed there in 1931. The film follows the Aboriginal girls as they walk for nine weeks along 1,500 miles (2,400 km) of the Australian rabbit-proof fence to return to their community at Jigalong, while being pursued by white law enforcement authorities and an Aboriginal tracker. The film illustrates the official child removal policy that existed in Australia between approximately 1905 and 1967. Its victims now are called the "Stolen Generations".
Wiluna is a small town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia. It is situated on the edge of the Western Desert at the gateway to the Canning Stock Route and Gunbarrel Highway. It is the service centre of the local area for the local Martu people, the pastoral industry, the Wiluna Gold Mine, and many more people who work on other mines in the area on a "fly-in/fly-out" basis. Wiluna's climate is hot and dry, with an annual rainfall of 258 millimetres (10.2 in). Mean maximum temperatures range from 19 °C (66 °F) in July, to 38 °C (100 °F) in January.
Kumpupintil Lake, formerly known as Lake Disappointment, is an endorheic salt lake located in the Little Sandy Desert, east of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Little Sandy Desert (LSD) is a desert region in the state of Western Australia, lying to the east of the Pilbara and north of the Gascoyne regions. It is part of the Western Desert cultural region, and was declared an interim Australian bioregion in the 1990s.
The Western Desert language, or Wati, is a dialect cluster of Australian Aboriginal languages in the Pama–Nyungan family.
Doris Pilkington Garimara, also known as Doris Pilkington, was an Australian author.
The deserts of Australia or the Australian deserts cover about 2,700,000 km2 (1,000,000 sq mi), or 18% of the Australian mainland, but about 35% of the Australian continent receives so little rain, it is practically desert. Collectively known as the Great Australian desert, they are primarily distributed throughout the Western Plateau and interior lowlands of the country, covering areas from South West Queensland, Far West region of New South Wales, Sunraysia in Victoria and Spencer Gulf in South Australia to the Barkly Tableland in Northern Territory and the Kimberley region in Western Australia.
The Martukaja (Mardu) are a grouping of several Aboriginal Australian peoples in the Western Desert cultural bloc.
Looma is an Aboriginal community about 120 km south-east of Derby adjacent the Fitzroy River in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. At the 2011 census, Looma had a population of 374.
Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, also known as APY, APY Lands or the Lands, is a large, sparsely-populated local government area (LGA) for Aboriginal people, located in the remote north west of South Australia. Some of the Aṉangu (people) of the Western Desert cultural bloc, in particular Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra peoples, inhabit the Lands.
Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence is an Australian book by Doris Pilkington, published in 1996. Based on a true story, the book is a personal account of an Indigenous Australian family's experiences as members of the Stolen Generation—the forced removal of mixed-race children from their families during the early 20th century. It tells the story of three young Aboriginal girls: Molly, Daisy, and Gracie, who are forcibly removed from their families at Jigalong and taken to Moore River, but escape from the government settlement in 1931 and then trek over 1,600 kilometres (990 mi) home by following the rabbit-proof fence, a massive pest-exclusion fence that crossed Western Australia from north to south.
Kunawarritji is an Aboriginal community, located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, within the Shire of East Pilbara on the Canning Stock Route.
Parnngurr is a medium-sized Aboriginal community, located 370 km from Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, within the Shire of East Pilbara. Parnngurr was originally known as Cotton Creek, the name of the ephemeral creek that runs beside the community.
Punmu is an Aboriginal community, located 640 km south east of Port Hedland in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, within the Shire of East Pilbara.
Parnpajinya is a small Aboriginal community, located proximate to Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, within the Shire of East Pilbara.
Molly Kelly was an Australian Martu Aboriginal woman, known for her escape from the Moore River Native Settlement in 1931 and subsequent 1,600 km (990 mi) trek home with her half-sister Daisy Kadibil and cousin Gracie Cross. She was a member of the Stolen Generations, who were part-white, part-Aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families by the Australian government. Her story was the inspiration for the book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence and the film Rabbit-Proof Fence.
The Kartudjara are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
The Wirdinja were an Aboriginal Australian people of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.
Daisy Kadibil was an Aboriginal Australian woman whose experiences shaped the 1996 book Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence, written by her niece Doris Pilkington Garimara and the subsequent 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence.
