The Barkly Region, formerly Barkly Shire, is a

local government area A local government area (LGA) is an administrative division of a country that a local government is responsible for. The size of an LGA varies by country but it is generally a subdivision of a federated state, state, province, division (politica ...

of the

Northern Territory of Australia The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, administered by the Barkly Regional Council. The region's main town is

Tennant Creek Tennant Creek () is a town located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the Northern Territory#Cities and towns, seventh largest town in the Northern Territory, and is located on the Stuart Highway, just south of the intersection with ...

. The region covers an area of and had a population of almost 7,400 as at June 2018.

History

In October 2006 the

Northern Territory Government The Northern Territory Government is the executive branch of the Northern Territory. The Government of Northern Territory was formed in 1978 with the granting of self-government to the Territory. The Northern Territory is a territory of the Co ...

announced the reform of local government areas. The intention of the reform was to improve and expand the delivery of services to towns and communities across the Northern Territory by establishing eleven new shires. The Barkly Shire was created on 1 July 2008, as were the remaining ten shires. On 1 January 2014, it was renamed Barkly Region. The Barkly Region is administered by the Barkly Regional Council. The most recent elections of Councillors were held on 26 August 2017. The current President (Mayor) of the Region is

Steve Edgington Steven Mark Edgington is an Australian politician from the Northern Territory. Edgington moved to Darwin in 1988 to join the police force. In his time in the Territory he has lived and worked in a number of locations including senior police rol ...

. In 2019, a proposal was made to build a

solar farm A photovoltaic power station, also known as a solar park, solar farm, or solar power plant, is a large-scale grid-connected photovoltaic power system (PV system) designed for the supply of merchant power. They are different from most building ...

in the region, which would become the world's largest

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

project. In 2021, the region had the lowest rate of vaccination against

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2024, all members of the council were dismissed after an investigation into its management. A report by the Northern Territory government found the organisation had unmanaged

conflicts of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations in whi ...

, breached the Local Government Act and had "serious deficiencies" in the conduct of council affairs.

Wards

The Barkly Regional Council is divided into 4 wards, which is governed by a President and 12 councillors across four wards: * Alyawarr Ward (South) (4) * Patta Ward (West) (5) * Kuwarrangu (until 2016 Yapakurlangu) (Northeast) (2) * Alpururrulam Ward (Southeast) (1)

Localities and communities

Land within the Barkly Region was divided during 2007 into bounded areas for the purpose of creating an

address An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used to give the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using border, political boundaries and street names as references, ...

for a property. The bounded areas are called "localities", with those localities associated with Aboriginal communities being called "communities".

Localities

* Anmatjere (part) * Costello * Creswell *

Davenport Davenport may refer to: Places Australia *Davenport, Northern Territory, a locality *Hundred of Davenport, cadastral unit in South Australia **Davenport, South Australia, suburb of Port Augusta **District Council of Davenport, former local govern ...

* Elliott *

Newcastle Waters Newcastle Waters is a town and locality off the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory. It is classified as a ghost town that contains a number of preserved historic buildings, including Jones's Store and the Junction Hotel. Geography no ...

Nicholson Nicholson may refer to: People *Nicholson (name), a surname, and a list of people with the name Places Australia * Nicholson, Victoria * Nicholson, Queensland * Nicholson County, New South Wales * Nicholson River (disambiguation) * Nicholson Ro ...

* Pamayu * Ranken * Sandover (part) * Tablelands * Tanami East *

Warumungu The Warumungu (or Warramunga) are a group of Aboriginal Australians of the Northern Territory. Today, Warumungu are mainly concentrated in the region of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, Tennant Creek and Alice Springs. Warumungu language call ...

Communities

Ali Curung Ali Curung ( Kaytetye: Alekarenge; formerly Warrabri) is an Indigenous Australian community in the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory. The community is located 170 km (106 mi) south of Tennant Creek, and 378 km (235 mi) n ...

* Alpurrurulam *

Ampilatwatja Ampilatwatja is a small community in the Northern Territory of Australia located northeast of Alice Springs. Governance and description Ampilatwatja is administered by the Barkly Regional Council and is within the Utopia aboriginal homeland. ...

* Canteen Creek * Tara * Wutungurra

Sister cities

Uintah County Uintah County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Utah. As of the 2020 United States census the population was 35,620. Its county seat and largest city is Vernal. The county was named for the portion of the Ute Indian tribe that lived in t ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, United States

References

External links

* {{coord, 19.80367, S, 135.5095, E, source:wikidata, display=title Barkly Shire