This week the remote community of Lajamanu, 550 kilometres south west of Katherine, celebrated its offical 40th birthday, having been gazetted as a town in September 1977. But before that it was the 'Hooker Creek Native Settlement' established in 1948 when a group of Warlpiri people were trucked from the overcrowded Yuendumu settlement. On two occasions the group walked over 600 kilometres back to Yuendumu, only to be trucked again to Hooker Creek. By the mid-1950s, when this image was taken, there were about 160 people living at the settlement and a school building and residences for staff were built. In 1977 in was renamed Lajamanu and by 1978 it was under community control.
Published: 24 September 217