Tanami Downs

Tanami Downs is located in Northern Territory
Tanami Downs
Tanami Downs
class=notpageimage|
Location in Northern Territory

20°33′54″S 129°43′25″E / 20.56500°S 129.72361°E / -20.56500; 129.72361 (Tanami Downs) Tanami Downs (formerly Mongrel Downs) is an Indigenous Australian-owned cattle station in the Northern Territory of Australia.

Geography

Tanami Downs station covers approximately 4,200 square kilometres (1,600 sq mi) [1] of the Northern Territory, about 650 kilometres (400 mi) north-west of Alice Springs.

Tanami Downs lies within the Tanami bioregion of hot, dry country, in which the dominant vegetation is spinifex hummock grassland.[2] Though drought-prone and semi-arid, Tanami Downs has some mountainous areas with permanent water, and its northern parts have plains suitable for cattle grazing.[3]

History and administration

Indigenous ownership of Tanami Downs was recognised through the Tanami Downs Land Claim. The claim was lodged in June 1989,[3] and the report under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 recognising the claim, was delivered in early 1992.[4] Title to the land was officially handed to the traditional owners on 21 December 1992.[3]

The land is owned by the Mungkurrupa Land Trust, which represents the traditional owners, while the station is operated by a board comprising a mix of traditional owners, an outside representative of another pastoral station, and an agricultural consultant.[5]

Notable residents (and traditional owners) of Tanami Downs include Indigenous artists Biddy Rockman Napaljarri and Peggy Rockman Napaljarri.[4] It is also where artist and author Kim Mahood grew up, and features heavily in her two biographies Craft for a Dry Lake (2000) and Position Doubtful: mapping landscapes and memories (2016).[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Tanami Downs : "Mongrel" station has new future". Central Land Council. March 1993. Retrieved 4 January 2013.
  2. ^ "Rangelands - Tanami". Australian Natural Resources Atlas. Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. 2000–2002. Archived from the original on 5 October 2009. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  3. ^ a b c ""Mongrel" station has new future: Tanami Downs Land Claim". Land Rights News. Central Land Council. March 1993. Archived from the original on 27 October 2010. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  4. ^ a b Justice Olney (1992). "Tanami Downs Land Claim: Findings, Recommendation and Report" (PDF). Report No. 42. Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  5. ^ "New management for Tanami Downs" (PDF). Land Rights News. Central Land Council. April 2009. p. 7. Retrieved 29 October 2009.
  6. ^ Wyndham, Susan (15 August 2016). "Kim Mahood returns to the Tanami Desert again and again in Position Doubtful". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 October 2023.