Amata

Aged Care | Cattle Yards | Clinic | Community Office | School | TAFE

Amata Community is located at the western end of the Musgrave Ranges in South Australia, about 10 km south of the Northern Territory border. It lies approximately 380 km south west of Alice Springs as the crow flies.

Amata was established as a cattle outstation in the 1960's, to take the pressure off the increasing growth of Pukatja (Ernabella). Amata is located in the far north west of South Australia, approximately 250kilometres west of the Stuart Highway, and approximately 40km south of the Northern Territory and South Australian border. Nestled at the base of the Musgrave Ranges, the community is made up of approximately 300 Anangu Maru (aboriginal people) who speak Pitjantjatjara as their first language and English as a second language.

The community has worked together to bring success in many ways. The Council members work together to bring unity and fairness for everyone through regular meetings. The community office is also open regularly. A new office planned for 2004 will improve facilities for the community. The community also serves the needs of Anangu within Amata, as well as surrounding homelands and travelers.

Amata infrastructure operations and services consist of power, water and sewerage, waste management, roads and airstrip. The roads in Amata are sealed and the airstrip is the only sealed airstrip in the AP Lands. Other services are CDEP, Store, community church and community recreation centre.

New housing has been built and tree planting and landscaping efforts have given Amata a pleasing look in some areas. After the completion of new housing for the elderly, a committee was set up with people from Nganampa Health Aged Care, Tjurma and Amata to look after this facility.

Through the help of Port Melbourne Uniting Church, restoration work to the community church had begun. Some of the work carried included repairing and repainting, new wiring through out the church and to the sound stage. Further work is planned for the future.

The improvement of facilities such as refrigerators to the store has given the opportunity for healthier foods to be stocked in the shop.

The existing machinery shed was renovated to become a recreation facility. This was done in conjunction with Frontier Services to create an undercovered, airconditioned centre.

Council supports that future directions for the community are in recognizing education and training a priorities. The proposed joining of Amata Community and Tjurma Homelands may provide benefits in consolidating services. This merger would save money, and redirect funds into projects of benefit to members in and around the community.

Minymaku Arts