Cundeelee was abandoned in the mid-1980s.
Substantial flow in the Ponton Creek cuts vehicle access to the Cundeelee settlement and while it was not the main reason for abandonment of the settlement, it was a contributing factor.
A ration depot was established in the area in 1939. Cundeelee mission and school was opened by the Australian Aborigines’ Evangelical Mission in 1949. It was run by inter-denominational churches until 1982, when it became an Aboriginal Community.
-
- Derelict buildings at Cundeelee.
Many of those at Cundeelee were Tjuntjuntjuara people from the Great Victoria Desert near Maralinga who had been relocated while the British Government was testing atomic weapons in the 1950s. These ‘Spinifex People’ were unhappy at Cundeelee and the majority moved back to their homelands in the Great Victoria Desert in 1984-86.
The original name of Cundeelee is Urpulurpulila – ‘tadpole’ in Pitjantjatjarra language – from the large number of tadpoles found in the rock hole there.
© Kim Epton 2019-2024
189 words, one photograph.
Feel free to use any part of this document but please do the right thing and give attribution to adventures.net.au. It will enhance the SEO of your website/blog and Adventures.
See Terms of Use.