Huts at Nepabunna Mission Station, Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia, Mt McKinlay in the background.

The Nepabunna Mission was established during the Great Depression. The community received no financial support, and building materials were very difficult to come by. As a result, homes were made with whatever could be found; mud, stones, flattened kerosene tins, and in a few instances, pine.

Fred Eaton, a carpenter by trade was instrumental in building many of them, and in teaching the Adnyamathanha how to build, and make furniture.

Mountford seemed impressed with their construction, commenting, 'thehouses which had been built by the inhabitants after a European pattern were well constructed.' PRG 1218/8/1 p. 31.

These crude structures, without sinks or cupboards, without verandas or gutters, were the only houses available to Mission residents until 1959, when eight new cottages were erected. However, this did little to solve the community's overcrowding and sanitation issues, and it was during the 1960s that Nepabunna residents started to request a Government take-over, releasing them from the control of the cash-strapped United Aborigines Mission. This eventually came to fruition in 1973, and the original, inadequate, housing was replaced.

Second image is a close-up of a stone hut with a pressed kerosene roof.

Nepabunna Mission (S. Aust.)

Brock, Peggy. Outback ghettos : Aborigines, institutionalisation and survival. Cambridge (England); Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Brock, Peggy. Yura and Udnyu : a history of the Adnyamathanha of the North Flinders Ranges. Adelaide: Wakefield Press in association with the Aboriginal Heritage Branch, Dept. of Environment and Planning, South Australia, 1985.

The Flinders Ranges : an Aboriginal view. 2nd ed. compiled by Christine Davis, Clifford Coulthard and Desmond Coulthard. Adelaide: Aboriginal Heritage Branch, Dept. of Environment and Planning, 1986.

Lamshed, Max. 'Monty': the biography of C.P. Mountford. Adelaide: Rigby, 1972. Ch. 10.

Ross, Betty. Minerawuta : Ram Paddock Gate : an historic Adnyamathanha settlement in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia. 2nd ed. Adelaide: Aboriginal Heritage Branch, Dept. of Environment and Planning, 1989.

Survival in our own land : 'Aboriginal' experiences in 'South Australia' since 1836. told by Nungas and others ; edited and researched by Christobel Mattingley, co-edited by Ken Hampton. Adelaide: ALDAA in association with Hodder & Stoughton, 1988.

Iga Warta - Accommodation and Cultural education on Adnyamathanha land

Nepabunna tourism