Umuwa, South Australia

Infobox Australian Place | type = town
name = Umuwa
state = sa


caption =
lga = Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara
postcode = 5710
est = 1991
pop = 50 (estimate)
elevation=
maxtemp = 37.1
mintemp = 5.0
rainfall = 222.6
stategov = Giles
fedgov = Grey
dist1 = 250
dir1 = northwest
location1= Marla
dist2 = 460
dir2 = southwest
location2= Alice Springs

Umuwa (coord|26.4441|S|132.0558|E|region:AU-SA_type:city(50)|display=inline,title) is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, serving as an administrative centre for the six main communities on "The Lands" (the others being Amata, Pipalyatjara, Pukatja/ Ernabella, Fregon/ Kaltjiti, Indulkana and Mimili), as well as the outlying communities.

Geography

Umuwa is located approximately 250km north-west of Marla and 460 km south west of Alice Springs.

Climate

Based upon the climate records of the nearest weather station at Marla Police Station, Umuwa experiences summer maximum temperatures of an average of 37.1 degrees celsius in January and a winter maximum average temperature of 19.7 degrees celsius in June. Overnight lows range from a mean minimum temperature of 21.8 degrees in January to 5.0 degrees in June.

Annual rainfall averages 222.6 millimetres. [Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology data [http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_016085.shtml] ]

Population

Approximately 50 people live at Umuwa.

History

Umuwa was established in 1991 as the administrative centre for the APY Lands.

The Hon Robert Lawson MLC, a member of the South Australian Parliament Standing Committee on Aboriginal Lands, on 1 June 2004 in the South Australian Legislative Council referred to Umuwa as the "Canberra of the Lands". It appears that Umuwa, by proportion of population, relatively recent history of establishment and tendency for administration to be centred there, is modelled on the Canberra style establishment of a capital for the Lands.

Facilities

Mail arrives in Umuwa twice per week by air mail. Supplies arrive by truck weekly. Unlike larger APY Lands settlements, Umuwa does not have a general store.

Based in Umuwa, AP Services provides road, housing and other essential services to the APY Lands.

PY Media is also based in Umuwa, providing multimedia and radio transmission services.

Nganampa Health Council, which staffs and runs the health clinics in other APY Lands towns, is based in Umuwa.

Unlike other settlements that must rely on non-renewable energy, in September 2003 work was completed at Umuwa for a solar power station which was expected to save 140,000 litres of diesel and 510 tonnes of Greenhouse emissions each year. [Solar Systems Case Study - Umuwa; [http://www.solarsystems.com.au/Umuwa%20case%20study.pdf] ] [Google Earth link to satellite footage of the solar dishes [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbbs.keyhole.com%2Fubb%2Fdownload.php%3FNumber%3D893511&t=k&om=1&ie=UTF8&ll=-26.473512,132.01476&spn=0.002295,0.003616&z=18] ]

As with most APY settlements, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Special Broadcasting Service television are available.

For State elections (ie to elect the Parliament of South Australia), a mobile polling booth is taken to Umuwa.

There is a police station at Umuwa, though it is not permanently manned. It is said to be the best quality of the police stations on the APY Lands ["Police Stations like ill-equipped sheds", Adelaide Advertiser, 7 July 2007 [http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22030204-2682,00.html] ] .

A permit is required for a member of the public to visit any community on the APY Lands, as they are freehold lands owned by the Aboriginal people.

Footnotes

External links

*cite web
last =
first =
year =
url = http://www.waru.org/communities/umuwa/
title = PY Media Site : Umuwa
format = HTML
work =
accessdate = 2007-07-05