The Nangatara are Aboriginal Australians whose country lies in the desert interior of Western Australia. Their country lies north-west of the Canning Stock Route, in dry desert country between the Percival Lakes and the wells of the old stock route. Most of what is written about them comes from the anthropologist Norman Tindale's 1974 catalogue, which drew on fieldwork and reports from the 1950s and 1960s.
Country
Tindale estimated the Nangatara lands at about 35,900 square kilometres (13,800 square miles). He placed them mainly between Lake Wooloomber and a well called Kuljai, with the north-western boundary roughly midway between the Percival Lakes and Joanna Springs. He listed many named native waters, though he could locate only a few of them firmly, including Nadawalu (Well 40 of the Canning Stock Route) and Di:ru (Well 41). The land around Rama, at the heart of their territory, is a hard, flat gravel plain, which the Nangatara called laribuka.
Water and movement
Water in this country is scarce and unreliable. Tindale grouped the Nangatara among the peoples who depended on rock-hole catchments, whose water supply was uncertain. In drought they travelled to Karbardi, south of Adverse Well, a place where five peoples met for water. Shortly before contact with Europeans, according to Tindale, they had extended their range north-east along the line of the later stock route, towards Well 47, after the Walmadjari withdrew northwards.
Names
Neighbouring peoples knew the Nangatara by several names. The Nyangumarta and the Mangala called them Julbaritja, meaning "southerners", a name also recorded as Yulbaridja. Other recorded forms include Nangadjara, Njangadjara, Nangi and Mangi. Tindale noted that Nanidjara, applied to them by the Wanman, seems to have been a term of abuse. A Western Desert language called Yulparija (also written Yulparitja) is spoken today at Bidyadanga and north of Jigalong; it is one of the Wati languages and had 33 speakers at the 2021 census.
The stock route
The Canning Stock Route, surveyed in 1906 and 1907, ran through the Nangatara area. Many of its wells were dug at or near existing Aboriginal waters and were hard for Aboriginal people to use safely, and the route disrupted travel and access to water across the desert. Over the following decades many desert families moved to missions, stations and towns at the edges of the desert.
On our maps
Our maps label this territory "Yulparitja", after the outsiders' name, and draw it in 1600, 1650, 1700, 1715, 1783, 1800 and 1815. The outline is approximate and does not mark when the people's history began or changed. Other desert peoples on the site include the Martu.
From the atlas
Nangatara on our maps
Borders of Time draws Nangatara on 7 of its 54 world maps, from 1600 CE to 1815 CE. Its largest extent is on the 1600 CE map, covering about 56,400 km² (21,800 sq mi), roughly the size of Ireland today.
On that map it borders Mangala, Mardu, Nyangumarda and Pintupi.
On the map before it appears (1530 CE), the same area belongs to the Australian aboriginal hunter-gatherers. On the map after its last appearance (1878 CE), it belongs to Western Australia (UK).
- 1600 CE56,400 km²
- 1650 CE56,400 km²
- 1700 CE56,400 km²
- 1715 CE56,400 km²
- 1783 CE56,400 km²
- 1800 CE56,400 km²
- 1815 CE56,400 km²
Measured from the historical-basemaps snapshots this atlas uses. Borders in those maps are approximate, especially for early periods.
Quick answers
- When did Nangatara exist?
- It appears on the atlas’s maps from 1600 to 1815.
- Where was Nangatara?
- At its largest, on the 1600 map, its land lies in today’s Australia (100%). On that map it borders Mangala, Mardu, Nyangumarda and Pintupi.
- How big was Nangatara?
- Nangatara was largest on the 1600 map, at about 56,400 km² (21,800 sq mi).