Lajamanu, Northern Territory

Lajamanu (formerly Hooker Creek ) is a small town in the northwest of the Northern Territory in Australia. It lies at the northern corner of the Warlpiri Aboriginal land in the foothills of Tanamiwüste, 557 km south-west of Katherine ( 464 km distance) and 872 kilometers south of Darwin ( 653 km distance). The 2011 census showed 656 inhabitants, of whom 585 ( 89.2 percent) Aborigines.

History

The area in the Lajamanu is located today was inhabited by the Aboriginal tribe of the Gurindji for more than 40,000 years. Through projects the Australian Government's Gurindji, however, were resettled. More or less randomly - - Warlpiri Aborigines were later settled then.

Middle of the 20th century lived in Yuendumu Warlpiri. In 1948 the Native Affairs Branch decided (about Department of Native Affairs ) of the Australian Federal Government, they due to drought and overcrowding fears after Catfish, a permanent waterhole nearly 600 kilometers north of Yuendumu to relocate. The road builder who should create the road to this new settlement with a grader, was piloted by two Warlpiri men Catfish direction. However, 150 km in front of their goal, they lost their way and turned back. Nevertheless, 25 Warlpiri were sent to a motorized transport direction Catfish. On their way there they camped at Hooker Creek - and because of this even led water, they decided to stay there instead of traveling by Catfish on.

Over the next few years 550 other Warlpiri of Yuendumu were transported to Hooker Creek. Were you with the separation from their family and their ancestral land but so unhappy that she ran back on foot to Yuendumu. Even after a new transport to Hooker Creek they went back to their original place of residence. Only after the third transport they stayed and accepted Hooker Creek at the north end of the Tanamiwüste as their new home, even if their spiritual roots remained in the southern Tanamiwüste.

In the 1970s, the Lajamanu Community Government Council, the first Council of the Northern Territory was. In 2008 he was part of the Central Desert Shire Council.

Climate

In this part of the Northern Territory there is a dry and a rainy season: Over 80 percent of the annual precipitation falls from December to March, over the remaining months it rains only very sporadically. In the summer months from September to April it is very hot, it will prevail daytime temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius. Although the heat cools down at night a bit, but it also remains quite warm (18 to 24 degrees Celsius daily minimum temperature ). The winter, especially June / July is much colder, but also this time with more moderate temperatures between 9 and 30 degrees Celsius marks still very mild.

The lowest temperature ever recorded was -0.1 ° C on 27 June 1971, the highest 45.4 ° C on 8 December 2009. 171 mm with the highest daily rainfall was registered on 30 January 2006.

Language

The majority of the population speaks Warlpiri. The place became widely known in 2013, when the linguist Carmen O'Shanessy had described the emergence of a new language, Light Warlpiri.

Traffic

Due to its remote location far from major cities Lajamanu is relatively difficult to achieve. A road access is via a 110- kilometer-long gravel road that leads to the Buntine Highway. After 323 kilometers, this leads to the Victoria Highway, which is part of the National Highway 1, the more connections towards Katherine and Darwin (via Stuart Highway ) and to Western Australia.

With the Hooker Creek Airport Lajamanu has a 1560 meter long gravel airstrip. The flight time is one to two hours from Katherine and two and a half hours from Darwin. Flights are offered by airlines Airnorth and Lajamanu Janami Air; also operates twice weekly mail plane with passenger transport.