Deb and I travelled back to Yalata as Deb had another contract at the clinic there and I was starting my Outback Stores career at the Yalata store over the Christmas period before heading north for my induction training.
As we had both been to Yalata before, we drove the land cruiser the 1250 kms from Bordertown as Deb would need the land cruiser once her contract had finished as I would be flying to Darwin early in the near year.
Community History ...
Yalata is located a few kilometres off the Eyre Highway and is approximately 200 kms West of Ceduna.
The community consists mainly of Anangu who
lived in the spinifex country far to the north around Ooldea prior to their
forcible removal to Yalata in 1952. In the 1950s areas around Maralinga and Emu were
used for Atomic Testing by the British Government of the day. Around this time
the Australian
Government resumed much Anangu land
to be used for the Woomera Rocket
testing Range.
As a result, Anangu were moved to Ooldea in the first instance then later moved
to the Yalata site. The Maralinga Tjarutja native title land was handed back to the
Anangu under legislation passed by both houses of the South Australian
Parliament in December 1984 and proclaimed in January 1985. The Yalata Aboriginal
lands cover 4,580 km² and span approximately 150 km of the Eyre
Highway. Inland Anangu resettled
on the land in 1995 and forming a community at Oak
Valley (Maralinga).
Regular movement of Anangu between
Yalata and Oak
Valley occurs.
Yalata Store ...
We stayed in the house used to accommodate visiting nurses and specialists to the community (below).
One afternoon, a local man came to the house with a carpet python he had caught in the scrub across the road from the house.
As Deb is very comfortable around snakes, she jumped at the opportunity to hold it whist I took the safer option of taking the photos (lucky I had a zoom lens!).
All too soon it was time for me to leave Deb in Yalata and head to a community in the Northern Territory via Ceduna, Adelaide and Darwin for my Induction training.
